Sunagakure Festival Days
by Aki Vos
Summary: Naruto and Sakura are finally heading over to Sunagakure for fun, but is there a new threat that may end the festival?
1. Chapter 1

**Aki here! So, this is the fourth installment of my continuing thingy. The first installment was Blood of Orochimaru, second installment was Konoha Days, and the third was Hibiscus**. **I highly recommend you read those before you read this.**

* * *

"I'm gonna be late!" Sakura yelled jumping out of bed after slamming her alarm clock. She had set the alarm clock to go off at five; it went off at seven, two hours later. She rushed over to her bag and began shoving things in it; a brush, a comb, some pants, shirts, undergarments and finally her Kimono. Throwing off her pajamas she donned a simple pink dress, threw a red belt around it, patted her hair and added her forehead protector. She ran from her room bag around her arms. "Mom! Buy me a new alarm clock! Bye, love you!"

Sakura burst from her house and began running towards Tsunade's office, she had to meet there in ten minutes to leave with Naruto, Guy, Lee and Shikamaru. Shikamaru didn't want to go, but was being forced into it by his duty to report to Gaara with news of the Chunin exams and Temari hassling him.

Her feet hit the dirt hard and she jumped up the side of the building and landed softly on the top and walked inside. Knocking on Tsunade's door she heard a come in and opened the door to find Tsunade reading through a scroll. "Good morning Tsunade-sama."

"Hello Sakura. Have a seat," she said calmly setting the scroll down. "Excited for the festival?" She asked smiling.

"Uh, hai. You seem very happy today, Tsunade-sama." Sakura said nervously, the last time she saw her master smile like that, she was pelted with baseballs. Tsunade just smiled more.

* * *

The alarm clock went off in Naruto's room at 7:07. He looked at it for a second and shut it off. He waded over to the bathroom throwing his shirt off and closed the door. A minute later he emerged stretching his neck. "It's way too early…"

There was a knock at his door, he went over and opened it, and there was Shikamaru, arms folded with a bag on his back. "You're not ready, as I suspected."

"So," Naruto yawned and threw a shirt on and grabbed his jacket. He picked up his bag and threw it on over his shoulders. "I'll just be slee….py." He yawned again.

"Baka…. Alright then, let's go." Shikamaru said and Naruto slipped on his shoes and followed Shikamaru as he vaulted over to the next building. They bobbed along for a bit, each time Naruto woke up more, and finally was screaming.

"Alright, off to Sunagakure!" He landed on the building top and ran down bursting into Tsunade's office. "Yosh, let's go!"

"Naruto! Calm down." Tsunade said getting angry at him. Shikamaru walked in and she stopped. "Naruto, Sakura, go in the hall for a moment." She said and opened a draw pulling out a file. They headed out and Sakura closed the doors behind them.

"Always about the Chunin exams." Naruto complained and leaned against the wall facing the doors. "It's not like she has to give him special instructions. 'Hand this to Gaara.' It's that easy."

"He does a lot more then that Naruto, he's also the liaison between the two countries, he's in charge of more then the Chunin exams… Which you have yet to pass." He hung his head as she was happy in proving a point.

* * *

"Shikamaru, you five aren't the only ones going from Konoha. There's a sixth going in disguise, if needed, they will contact you and enlist your help. We've received a threat on the festival from a group calling themselves 'Kage'." Tsunade said handing him a folder. He took it, "if needed you will have to grab Guy and Lee and protect the festival along with a specialized group from Sunagakure in crowd control."

"What about Naruto and Sakura?" Shikamaru said shoving the folder in his backpack. "Are they going to fight too?"

"No, I believe the group may be after Sakura." She said quietly.

Shikamaru was taken a back. "Why Sakura? Shouldn't they be after Naruto?"

"There are some things about Kage you may not understand, but they collect the bodies of medical ninja. It's a disturbing practice what they do to them. Which is why you're going to send Naruto in alone next. But one more thing, a request from Kakashi and Yamato…"

Shikamaru heard the words and smiled. "Well, if that doesn't beat all. Wasn't expecting that. Alright, well, I'll send him in." Shikamaru shoved his hand in his pocket and opened the door. "Naruto, you're next."

"What?" Naruto said as he walked in the room past Shikamaru. Shikamaru closed the door and Naruto stood nervously. "If this is about the yelling Jiraiya always said that…"

"Naruto, Sakura may be in danger." She said quickly. Naruto stopped and starred. "There's a group going around collecting medical ninja's, therefore, if you are not with Sakura, she is to be with Temari. She is never to be left alone, got it?" Tsunade roared in a low voice.

"I got it, I got it." Naruto said nodding quickly. "So, anything else?"

"One more personal thing…" Tsunade said standing up, she walked over and stood next to him. "If you touch my Sakura I'll kill you." She said and smiled. Tsunade walked over to the door and opened it. Naruto didn't move a muscle, but started to sweat. "Alright, everyone in! Guy get off my ceiling!" She yelled and Naruto heard a thud, but still remained motionless.

As they filed in, no one really noticed. 'Granny's…. still scary….' He thought as he felt himself being knocked on the floor. "What the Hell?"

Shikamaru snickered, "you've been out of it for the past five minutes. Come on, it's time to go." Shikamaru began walking out the door; Sakura looked at him awkwardly as Lee offered a hand to help him up.

"Thanks, Lee." He said and took the hand and got up. He looked over at Tsunade; she slowly drew a line across her neck with her finger, her smile clearly evil. "Let's go!" Naruto yelled and ran from the building, knocking Shikamaru over on the way out.

* * *

Guy was making a barbeque out of stick and kunai, "See, just because we're camping doesn't mean we can't eat properly! Now Lee! What's the first rule in cooking!" Guy yelled standing up next to the fire. Lee jumped up beside him. In synchronized movement, they pulled out white aprons with 'kiss the cook' on them.

"We put on our aprons, making us clean and irresistible, right Sakura-chan?" Lee asked bending over the fire.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "your apron's on fire." She said blandly and pulled out a box of snack bars. "You guys didn't bring any food, did you?"

"Uh…" Guy dropped his pose, "no… I forgot." He suddenly perked up, "we can have whatever we find in the wild!" Guy and Lee began prancing about.

"I brought snack bars and some dried rations." Sakura said.

"Three days worth of sandwiches." Shikamaru said pulling one out.

"I brought Ramen…" Naruto said pulling out five thermoses. "They are cold, but it's still Ramen!"

Guy and Lee stopped as they all began to eat what they brought; Guy and Lee began muttering and headed out into the forest complaining.

* * *

"All but four of the contestants have arrived, the guys from Konoha, Sempai." Matsuri said flipping through the papers. "Anything you want done, I'm sure they'll arrive on the starting day."

"No, everything's set." Gaara mumbled looking over the city. The wind blew hard, the banners that had been hung around the city were flapping in the breeze. "Let's hope we're not in for a sand storm. Get the meteorologists looking into the possibilities."

"Hai, Sempai." Matsuri said jumping away into the city.

Gaara watched her disappear and looked out over the horizon. The sand seemed to be unmoving, the only thing besides the buildings that were. "I'm waiting for our rematch, Lee…" He said and disappeared.

* * *

"So, how'd it go?" Yamato asked as he and Kakashi waded into the Hokage's office, papers everywhere on the floor. She was sitting in front of her desk, a book on her head and a pen in her mouth.

"Huh…" She muttered and took the pen out.

"Yamato wants to know what you did about Naruto and Sakura, although it should be left alone. Personal business is personal business." Kakashi said upset. "You both know how wrong it is to dabble in people's personal lives."

"Not in this case! That is my apprentice! I should thank Yamato for telling me, unlike some people." Tsunade growled over at Kakashi.

"I'm positive that the more you press them apart the more they'll come together. Think about it." Kakashi said pointing a finger up in the air. "Tsunade, when you tell Sakura to stop training and go home, what does she do?"

"She goes home and trains."

"Yamato, when you tell Naruto he can't attack someone because it's to dangerous, what does he do?"

"Uh, he usually beats the crap out of them." Yamato said trying to think.

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "They do that in all aspects of their lives, if you push them one way, they'll push back or find a way around. There fore, you two just shoved them together."

"WHAT?!" Tsunade yelled jumping up, the book fell off her head, "so that's where I put that. Quickly, get me Navi!" Tsunade roared.

"I'm right here Sempai." Navi said leaning in the window, "so, what little love tangle are we getting ourselves wrapped in?" Navi smiled cheekily and Tsunade picked up the book.

"Keep Naruto and Sakura apart!"

"Why would I do that? I asked to be able to protect Naruto and his interests. So sorry," Navi said shrugging, "if she's an interest I support it."

"Just do it! They're in Sunagakure, make sure nothing funny happens!" Tsunade said and pitched the book at Navi, she caught it. "Got it?"

"One condition," Navi said stepping inside. She handed Tsunade the book. "If she makes any moves, I don't stop them, only his. Got it?"

"Navi…." Growled Tsunade.

Navi crossed her arms and made a sad face. "What, don't you have belief in Sakura-chan. Are you saying you don't trust her judgment? You wouldn't do that to an apprentice, eh, Tsu-nad-e-sem-pai." She said slowly.

"Fine!" Tsunade roared. "All of you just get out!" They all disappeared leaving her upset in the middle of the piles of papers. "Uh… they grow up too fast."

* * *

It was a starry sky through the trees. Sakura stood up at the top of the trees and looked out over the vast expanse of blazing lights. She heard a noise behind her to see Shikamaru had joined her. "It's a lot bigger from her then from Konoha, huh?"

"The sky's always the same sky." He said stiffly. He put his hand behind his neck and craned his head back. "It does look a lot better though. Chouji would love to see this."

"A lot of people would."

"While everyone else is passed out, Tsunade gave me two extra assignments; I feel I should warn you about both. One is that there is a threat to all medical ninjas attending the festival, Tsunade's sent a special ninja to watch out over you while you're there. She's told Naruto to always stay by your side, so that's one side of it.

"The other assignment is a little different."

"Different?" Sakura asked still star gazing.

"Apparently, some one knows about you and Naruto getting closer and told Tsunade." Shikamaru said quietly. "I thought only me, Temari and Kiba knew, but apparently it's bigger then that. She's asked me to check in on you guys every now and then, to keep you apart but close enough so Naruto can protect you if needed."

Sakura dropped her gaze and clasped her hands together. "So, what are you going to do?"

"Nothing," he said and smiled over at her, "It's not my place."

"Thank you, Shika." He nodded.

"So, does Naruto know you like him back?" Sakura shook her head. "That's going to be a pleasant surprise for him, he really likes you. Well, I'm off to bed, don't let anyone know I told you." Shikamaru dropped from the tree.

Sakura returned her eyes to the stars taking them in with a giant, warm smile. "Funny…" Sakura hopped down from the trees carefully and landed next to Naruto, she turned quickly to Shikamaru who turned over facing away from them.

She grabbed her pillow and sleeping bag and moved it over next to Naruto's. She step them down and crawled into her sleeping bag, looking at Naruto. He was sleeping quietly, his mouth open a little of drool. Sakura laughed in her head and fell asleep staring at him.

Gently on the trees above, a figure landed, the white ANBU mask starring down at them, she spotted Sakura and observed for a second before jumping away into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

"They are not late, Kankuro, cool your jets for a bit." Matsuri said sitting on Gaara's desk staring at Kankuro and Temari. "Right Temari-sama, we still have one day left."

"Right." Temari said not paying attention. She had picked up a book and had found herself immersed in it. Matsuri looked at her and tried to make out the title. "Fever… Night. Is it a love story Temari?"

"No, of course not, it's about shinobis who die due to a traitor and they come back as the form of small woodland creatures and slowly eat away at the traitor." She said in her scariest voice Matsuri was shaking.

The door opened and Gaara walked in, he sighed. "There was a collapsed building across town, four people died, we're burying them tonight." He walked around the desk and sat down. "Temari, you're in charge, get the headstones made immediately, we have to have this done as soon as possible. Keep it quite.

"Kankuro, get a squad together and begin cleaning the ruble, we need it done tonight if possible. Matsuri, go to the city and see if there aren't any houses for sale, if so, buy it, we still have nine surviving homeless." They all quickly ran from the room. Gaara took a deep breath and began shuffling through his papers and there it dropped a small silver key.

Grabbing it Gaara opened a draw and removed al the papers, he stuck the key into a small hidden key hole and turned it. The locking mechanism undid and he lifted the piece of wood out, there lay a small brown book. He picked it out and opened it, finding the end of the text. He pulled out a pen and wrote the days date and '4 dead, 9 saved, building collapsed.' He close the book and put it back under lock and key, he shoved the key in a pocket and stood up after putting the contents of the draw back.

He walked out of the building and into the streets, everywhere the shinobi around waved; he nodded to them and made his way over to the corner of the city where the building was. There the four body bags were laid in the streets; Kankuro had gathered the young Genin for the clean up. Gaara figured that Kankuro wanted the higher leveled shinobi for emergency only. "All of you, off for a second."

They turned to Gaara and jumped down. He raised a hand and the sands came up and buried the house; after a few seconds things began to surface: plates, clothes, photos and other things belonging to the family. "Get those things in boxes, quickly!" Kankuro yelled and they began to pick everything up. There in the sand by Gaara, a small stuffed rabbit surfaced. He knew it belonged to the girl; she was the only child there and had died. He went over to the small black bag and set it down on top.

Gaara stood for a minute observing the tragic scene. He felt a hand on his shoulder, there was Kankuro looking down at the bag. "Don't take this to heart Gaara, no one could have seen this happening."

"I know, Kankuro, I know."

* * *

"What do you mean they're gone?" Sakura asked, "They were just behind us." She said pointing back through the trees.

"They just up and left." Naruto said.

Shikamaru nodded. "They did say something about a restaurant a town over. It's a half a day there and back, if we keep going at our pace, we'll make it in time."

"I think if we pressed hard enough we could get to Sunagakure by tonight." Sakura said, the boys nodded. Jumping into the trees the three sped up quickly going twice the pace they had been.

Shikamaru went ahead of them, "just a second, I'll catch up in a minute."

"Alright!" Sakura yelled and Naruto and Sakura kept going. Shikamaru turned around. "Come on out."

"You're good…" Navi dropped from the branches above. "How long ago did you notice me following you?"

"Four hours, you only got within attack range the past few minutes." He said staring at her. "So, what are you doing out here?"

"Tsunade got really worried about those two, I'm not that worried, but anyway, she sent me to be sneaky and keep Naruto off Sakura, but not the other way around." Navi grinned happily. "But, I maybe so tied up in the festival… I may not be looking. Anyway, I think it'd be cute."

"Then were on the same page. But keep after them, Sakura maybe in danger from a group called Kage. Keep to the top of the trees, half a mile behind, they won't notice you there."

"See you." She said and jumped away to a tree waiting for him to go. Shikamaru began to catch up as quickly as he could. Navi easily followed him.

* * *

"How was the funeral?" Matsuri asked joining Gaara as she usually did on top of the Kazekage's building. She walked up slowly and stood next to him looking out as the sun was setting. "Kankuro told me you went."

"Hai, it was nice. The rest of the family has been taken care of then?" He asked solemly.

"Of course. Sempai, can I ask you something?" He turned to her, his eyes showing a person not all there. "Why do you take everything that happens here to heart? Every time there's an accident, you always become personally involved."

"I am the wind shadow; it's my job to look after every last person. And I fully intend to myself. Every single life is my responsibility. After the festival, all the buildings that haven't been inspected in over twenty years are to be looked at. I don't want this happening again."

Matsuri turned her attention away and pointed out into the sands of the setting sun, "Sempai, people. It's Konoha!"

"Konoha!" Gaara and Matsuri raced down the building and off into the streets quickly passing everyone, leaping from walls when necessary. They stopped at the entrance as the three landed. "Naruto."

"Gaara." Naruto said taking his hand, "we showed up a bit early. Hope it's alright."

Matsuri smiled, "we had people showing up four weeks ago. Well, come along, I'll show you to your rooms."

Shikamaru stepped foreword, "Gaara, there's something important we need to discuss privately." Gaara nodded quickly and the two disappeared.

"Always in a hurry…." Matsuri said waving it off. She began slowly inside, Sakura and Naruto following. "So, where's the boys in green?"

"They detoured, they'll be here tomorrow." Sakura said quickly and ran up next to Matsuri. "So, I heard the new greenhouses, would you mind showing me later in the week?"

"I'd love to, and maybe you could teach me what I'm looking at when I walk in there," she said smiling. It was then they all felt something, the girls stopped and tried to figure out the feeling, Naruto turned his head.

"NARUTO-KUN!" He was tackled to the ground. There Adji was squeezing the life out of him. "IT'S BEEN AT LEAST SIX MONTHS! HOW ARE YOU?"

"Cho….king…" Naruto said and she let go; Adji moved to his side and smiled. "Hello Adji, I'm doing well. How are you and Tori?"

"We're good, you should come and join us for dinner, were eating at the Barbeque on the east side at nine, alright?" She said, Naruto nodded and Adji jumped from the scene in her bright blue and white cocktail dress. "LATER!"

"BYE!" Naruto yelled and stood up. He turned and looked at Sakura and Mitsubi, they were both dumbfounded. "That's my friend Tori's girlfriend, Adji. Sakura, looks like we've been invited to dinner with them."

Sakura smiled. "We better hurry and change then, it's nearly eight-thirty."

"Come on them!" Matsuri said jumping on a nearby building. "You guys better keep pace!" She said and began going away, they followed.

* * *

"She was serious, huh, Shikamaru?" Gaara said perusing the report on Kage. He flipped a page and read through it quickly. "Alright, you wouldn't mind working for a day, would you?"

"That's fine by me, Kazekage-sama." Shikamaru replied. Gaara quickly pulled out a piece of paper and began scribbling notes. He folded it and handed it over. "Who do I hand this to?"

"Temari, she should be down by the gates. Arigatou."

"No problem." Shikamaru disappeared from the room and landed on the ground outside the office to slowly walk down the busy street. 'Man, this festival is sure making it crowded.'

He pressed through and saw Temari yelling at a group of ninjas by the main gate. "You were supposed to put the rainbow flags up here! Not the blue ones! Do you know how important this festival is to the Kazekage? Well?"

"Um… no…" A small meek child said in front.

"Temari, how troubling…" Shikamaru said walking up, he ruffled the hair of the kid. "She's just being strict, go and have fun!" He said and smiled. They little child smiled up at him and disappeared.

"You're impeding on me teaching." She said sourly, he extended the note out to her. "Orai…?"

"From the Kazekage, it's important." He threw it at her.

Temari threw it open and began reading. She stopped suddenly and began walking, "you're all dismissed! Go celebrate!" She kept reading and stopped to watch them leave, "So, our medical ninjas are in danger?"

"Tsunade would like you to stay with Sakura during the night for protection." Shikamaru said. "If you wouldn't mind baby sitting her. Tsunade's worried about her and Naruto…"

"Worried, what are they both in danger?" She said crumpling the note and putting it in her pocket.

"Look at it in a different prospective. She's worried about Sakura and Naruto." He said making a whole symbol with his hands. Temari started giggling. "Now you have it. Well I have to be going back to Gaara."

"Hey, Shika, one last thing…" She said before he turned to leave, "I entered you in the fighting contest and picked your opponent… Me!" She said proudly pointing a finger at herself. "Prepare yourself!"

"Whatever…" He said and calmly began walking away.

She caught up and began walking besides him. "Aren't you interested? I mean, our last fight at the Chunin exams you forfeited, now we can see how well you do in actual combat!"

"I don't do actual combat, I avoid combat. Hell, I avoid work if possible." Shikamaru turned the corner and began walking down a random street. "What makes you think I'm going to change my tactics?"

"Because if you don't… this time I'll kill you!" Temari crossed her arms proudly. "I know your techniques, there's nothing you can do but fight like a man!"

"Fat chance!" He said and stopped, "well, I'm leaving you now, later." Shikamaru jumped away across several buildings and headed over to where he had though he saw the ANBU. There was a flash and he stopped and turned suddenly jumping over a street and heading down to the wall when he stopped, the ANBU standing on a roof. "So, she sent you?"

"A girl for a girl." She said slowly. "Where is my target?"

"I have no clue, try listening for Naruto's loud mouth, she'll probably be with him. So how are things…" She leapt away. "…going. ANBU are always so rude."

* * *

"Um, hi." Sakura said holding her hand out, she had put on the only other cloths she had brought that were suitable, a plain pink long sleeve and a pair of black pants. "I'm Sakura Haruno."

Tori took her hand and shook is slowly. "I'm Tori Mitsubi, from the Rock, and this is Adji from the Mist." He dropped her hand and moved it to lead inside. "So, Naruto, how's everything, I heard about Jiraiya?"

"He was a good man… But everything's going good. How's you're grandmother?" Naruto asked trying to lighten the mood.

"She died last month…" He said sadly.

"Old people die, it's natural." Adji said and pushed in front, "so," she said looking over at Sakura. "Are you Naruto's girlfriend?"

"Eh!?" She said nervously, "No! I'm his team mate!" She said quickly, "we work together." Sakura put up a fake smile. 'If you said yes, you could cut through all the bull crap!' 'Shut up inner me!' 'No, you shut up unless you stop lying to yourself.' 'I'm not having this argument now!'

"Are you okay?" Adji asked. "You went quiet for a while?"

Naruto smiled, "Sakura has this weird inner monologue she does every now and then."

Sakura hit him to the ground, "I DO NOT! DON'T LIE!" 'It's me and my conscious, no inner monologue… mazdai… is this an inner monologue…? Ah! He's right!'

"Hey! Man you space out a lot!" Adji said shaking her shoulder, "and you sure do make some weird faces. Come on, let's go eat." Adji walked up to the waiter, "four please."

"Hai, this way." The waiter said, Adji and Sakura walked over while Tori help Naruto up. "That looked like it hurt."

"It did," Naruto, once on his feet made his way over to the table and sat down next to Sakura, "next time you hit; don't put so much chakra in it."

"I didn't put any, that's natural muscle." She said proudly. "Sorry, by the way. I was thinking, not a monologue. How's you're head?"

"You've hit me harder then that before, I'll be fine." He said and smiled over at her, she smiled back and Adji slammed her fist on the table, "Are you sure you two aren't close to dating? You sure act like it!"

"Adji…" Tori said and pulled her hand off the table and held, "they're close friends, it's like how you act with Gaito-sama."

Naruto looked up at her, "how's Gaito?"

"He died…" She said and the table went quiet, "just kidding. I figured I'd fit in if my sempai had died too. Eh, I guess it wasn't funny."

"DON'T DO THAT!" Tori screamed, he caught himself quickly. "Remember the condition."

"I will not adjust my life story to make a joke… I know, I know." She leaned foreword and sighed, "I'm hungry."


	3. Chapter 3

**Aki here: **Sorry I haven't been updating like crazy, college preps and all, but I started today, expect the next chapter a lot sooner. Umkay? Alright my fluffy little fan girls and the occasional fan boys, dig in. Please remember **R&R is nice!**

* * *

"Wake up!" Temari said leaning over Sakura, who was still fast asleep, "come on, it's nearly ten." Sakura didn't wake but rolled over, a little cheesy smile on her face. She muttered something and settled back into bed. "UP!" Temari said and punched the bed beside her; Sakura went flying up and landed on her back. "Morning."

"Was… was there are earthquake?" She said sitting up, "I felt like I dropped."

"You did, I've been trying to wake you up for fifteen minutes, man you're a hard sleeper." Temari sat on the bed and looked over at the red Kimono, beautifully decorated, hanging from the closet. "So, that's your Kimono? Mine's not that good…"

"Well…" Sakura said getting out of bed, "I worked on it some, and a friend did some work too. It took a lot of time and effort, but I'm glad I have it now." She went over and pulled it down, "would you mind helping me?"

'"I was going to ask you the same question, but to tell the truth…. I have no clue how to put one on." Temari said quickly. "As a shinobi I have never found it necessary to dress up, but Gaara's making me for today."

"Well, trying new things is good," Sakura said and took the Kimono off the hanger and pulled off the ropes, "It's actually pretty easy."

* * *

"Naruto!" Kankuro said shaking him, "NAR-U-TO!" He shoved him in the back and a gurgling sound was made and Naruto turned over, "wake up."

"But… I'm tired… Can't I sleep for a few more hour?" Naruto asked rubbing his eyes. "Because of Tori, I got to bed around three…"

"Gaara's expecting us in twenty minutes; you still have to get dressed yet! It's the traditional day! See!" Kankuro said pointing out the black attire.

"It looks like you took the hat off…." Naruto said sitting up. He yawned and turned back to him. "What's for breakfast?"

"GET DRESSED!"

"FINE! Jezze, yelling first thing in the morning…."

"It's nearly ten!" He said pointing to the clock on the wall. "You've just slept in. Be at the Kazekage's office in twenty minutes, ten fifteen."

"I can tell time!" Naruto said defending himself as the door shut and Kankuro walked out of the building. Naruto sighed and walked over to his bag and pulled out the white box and opened it, there was his blue kimono. He put it on and scratched his neck, "I'm starving… Oh!"

Naruto turned once again to his bag and pulled out the two smaller white boxes. He opened them and removed the price tags from them. He walked slowly over to the door and opened it; the hallway of the inn was quiet. He left and began to make his way to a small house next to the Kazekage's building, the place where Sakura was staying, and Temari's apartment.

He landed in front of the door marked 216 and knocked. After about a second Temari opened the door and looked at him, "You here to take over guard duty?"

"Nice one, actually, where is Sakura-chan?" He asked. Temari stepped inside letting him in and closed the door. Her apartment was small, and horribly minimalist except for a large red fan on the wall. She knocked on a door and entered, closing it behind her.

It was a few minutes later that Sakura stepped out, fully in Kimono, "Oh, hi. Well, what do you think?"

"You look good Sakura-chan." Naruto said smiling. He felt the boxes in his hands; Naruto held them foreword. "I picked these up a while's ago; I figured you could have them."

She took them, "arigato." She opened the box and looked down at two small combs with small dangling flowers. "This is…" She closed it and opened the other box, "this is! How much money did you spend on this! This is the Crystal Comb collection!"

"Nothing, the lady gave them to me when I bought the Kimono." Naruto waited for Sakura to move, she simply looked at the combs. "Um, are you alright?"

Sakura's foot moved slowly, it stepped out in front of her and she ran and hugged Naruto. "They're beautiful. Arigatou nesaimas!" She held on for a second, Naruto got a little nervous. There was a loud cough and Temari stepped into the room.

Temari grabbed Sakura's shoulder and pulled her off, "thanking someone's fine, but don't crush his lungs! We still have to get ready Naruto, go and see Gaara at the Kazekage complex. Tell him we'll be along in a few minutes."

"Uh, hai. See you." He said and left quickly. Temari shook her head and grabbed the comb set, "next time, don't be such a girl about it. You completely confused him."

"I did not! Oh… well, maybe. What do you know about it anyway?" She said taking the comb set back. "It's not like you have someone to get… Or do you?" Sakura said raising an eyebrow. "Of course that'd make such perfect sense…"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Temari said flatly. "Now, help me with my Kimono then we can do your hair." Temari pulled out a small black box and opened it to a bright blue kimono with a large dark blue sash. "Simple, huh?"

"Looks like you're normal clothes, except the sash isn't red." Sakura said. She stopped for a minute and ran into the guest bed room, and grabbed something in her bag; she pulled it out quickly. "It's my spare gold belt, here, we can use it instead of the dark blue."

"You brought spares? That's kind of weird." Sakura smiled and pulled out a second Kimono, "you brought a spare Kimono?"

"Hai hai. I always pack two, just in case… Hey why don't you wear this one? It's pretty gold…"

Temari shrieked away, "no way, that' far too girly."

"You know… I could tell Gaara you're trying to mess up the festival." Sakura smiled, she saw the kimono as it was snatched up. Temari frowned at her, but Sakura was immune to her glare. "Alright, let's get you dressed."

* * *

"You're too easy to spot." Navi said landing behind the ANBU agent. The ANBU spun around surprised; she pulled a kunai out and saw who it was. "If I was you, I'd get a festival mask, a kimono and blend in with the crowd. You're sticking out like a sore thumb." Navi said and stuck her thumb out waggling it. "But that's just my opinion."

"That's against regulations."

"And you'll be spotted easily. Sakura Haruno's a little better ninja then you give her credit for." Navi patted her on the head in the most friendly way she could. "You should know, the order's more important then the little details. Sayonara." Navi said putting her festival mask. She jumped down in the crowd and moved around without anyone asking questions.

The ANBU sighed, she removed her mask and searched down for a booth. There across the way was a mask shop. Yugao moved quickly, her arm flying out with string; she lassoed a mask and pulled it off the rack below and into her hand. She flipped it over, it had flowers on it. She sighed, returning her ANBU mask to her back pocket Yugao put the festival mask on; her stare returned to the apartment a few meters away.

Sakura walked out followed by Temari, She watched carefully as the two began to take off and head towards the Kazekage's building. Yugao followed closely behind on the roof top and stopped some twenty meters short of them as the entered the building.

* * *

"You were almost late, Temari." Gaara said as he and Kankuro approached the window, "Come on."

"Hai." She said and walked up with him. Naruto was sitting and glaring at him, "Hey Sakura-chan. Do you think one day, I'll be able to do that? Give speeches as a Hokage?"

"I think you'll be good at it… If you practice, that is. You kind of still talk like a child sometimes." She said carefully. "Not to offend you or anything; but you have a long way to go."

Naruto nodded with a giant grin, "that's half the fun of becoming a Hokage… But when I take office, Shinobi will have more fun. And unlike before, to become a Genin, you don't have to know the same move as everybody else, because not everybody can learn everything on their own. And… and I'll make sure Sasuke comes home, even if he doesn't stay."

He lowered his head quickly and everything went quiet and a roar from the audience Gaara was entertaining erupted. Naruto looked up at Sakura, she smiled gracefully back. "That sounds nice, Naruto."

"Anyway, I still have to beat Sasuke before it's done. I'm sure at some point he'll realize that he wants a rematch too! Anyway, being Hokage… I'd finally be able to let the shinobi find their own ways, just like my way of the ninja." He laughed quietly for a second, "that does sound nice."

Gaara finished and walked inside, "I got a report from a scout, Guy and Lee arrived late last night. However we need to find Shikamaru."

"Why? Didn't he give you the report?" Naruto asked folding his arms. "Well I can understand if he didn't," the door opened and Shikamaru walked in, "he is horribly lazy." Naruto received a slight hit on the head. "Oh… There you are Shika…"

"Yeah, whatever." He said fumbling with a festival mask. He stopped and looked up. "So, when do the matches start?" He sighed. "I really don't want to compete but I guess I'll have to since some bl…" He glared over and Temari, she frowned in a disappointed way; she knew an insult was coming. "Some one wanted a rematch."

She smiled nervously, and then straightened out to her normal demeanor. "That's right, I'll beat you without you're little shade tactics. The open desert has no trees!"

"Save it for tonight." Kankuro said and sat down on the edge of Gaara's desk. "Whomever wins the matches moves on to tomorrow night, until we have a winner. Guess what the prize is?"

"What?" Naruto asked excited.

"You're supposed to guess!" Kankuro yelled.

"The prize…" Gaara muttered, "Is a surprise. Kankuro, shut up."

"Hai, there's no reason to get angry. Anyway, he'll never guess it." He said and smiled. "Well, we better go and mingle with people. You should see the way girls fawn over Gaara, it's hilarious."

"It's gross." Temari said quickly. "They throw themselves at him simply because he's Kazekage. No good girl worth while would do that."

There was a loud poof and Matsuri was sitting like a cat on Gaara's desk staring at him. "Sempai, you promised to take me around the shops, remember?" Gaara's face didn't change. "You forgot?! You told me you would just yesterday!"

"I didn't forget, you just popped in… at a weird time…" He said thinking. He turned up and smiled, "let's go, everybody. The main shops give things away for free, plus there are some games."

"I knew you didn't forget!" Matsuri said jumping down happily. "Maybe I'll finally be able to get a ring over a prize this year."

"You know the rings always smaller then the prize." Temari mentioned. Matsuri grew a wicked grin across her face. "I know, Temari-sama, I know."

* * *

Matsuri grabbed the rings and jumped back in the air above the prizes and tables, everyone watches as one by one, she threw the rings down flat, level with the ground, and they forced their way over three stuffed animals, constricting the stuffing and fabric. She landed happily. "I don't want them all. Can I just have the pink rabbit?"

The man looked at her impressed. "I can't, you have to take all prizes won… It's regulation…"

Matsuri sighed then immediately perked up. "OKay!" The man carefully handed them over to her one by one, the pink rabbit, a green turtle and a silver bird. She popped the rabbit ear in her mouth and shoved the turtle at Sakura and the bird at Temari. "Arigatou." They said simultaneously.

She smiled and pulled the rabbit out of her mouth. "So, what now?"

"Be back in a second." Sakura said and took off for the Test Your Strength game. They could see her talking with the man for a minute, instead of the normal game, he spun the attraction around, revealing the game with kunai hanging all over it. 'Shinobi's Strength Test' was at the top.

"Can she win that?" Temari asked. Shikamaru and Naruto turned to her. "What?"

"You better just watch." Shikamaru said. "There's a reason she and Tsunade get along so well." Temari turned and crossed her arms, the bird dangling from her finger tips. Sakura handed off the turtle and picked up a mallet as large as she was and smiled. She raised it easily above her head and slammed it down. There was a loud crashing noise. The attraction was broken; the ground beneath them was off set by large amounts. "See?"

Sakura took back the turtle and grabbed a large box. She bowed quickly and began stomping down the ground. Once it was fixed she walked back. Naruto looked at the box, "what'd you get?"

"Um, I think he said it was television." She set the box down and opened it up to reveal a large flat screen TV, shimmering black. "Yep, television. This is going to go nicely in my living room. Um, hey Naruto, will you help me put this back at Temari's place, my arms are kind of… tired. I put way too much behind the swing."

"We noticed." Matsuri said and bounced over, "hurry back so we can go shopping, alright." Matsuri skipped off and stopped at another carnival style game. Naruto put the lid back on and picked up the box. He nodded and they jumped off onto a near by rooftop.


	4. Chapter 4

"Careful." Sakura said grabbing the edge of the box and helping Naruto set it down. She frown a bit, gritting her teeth and released the box when it was safely on the floor. "To win it, I had to put down five thousand pounds of pressure…."

"Su… goi… That could completely crush a person." Sakura nodded and flexed her arms. "Well, we better get back."

"Hai hai, just a second, I have to get some pain reliever." Sakura moved from the main room into her room and came back out quickly with a small red bottle. "Tsunade's miracle anti-pain pills," She turned the cap and pulled out a small blue pill. She popped it in her mouth; she crunched it between her teeth and closed the bottle, shoving it away in her robes.

"How fast do they work?" Naruto said opening the door.

"I could do it again in about five minutes." She grabbed her elbows and began out slowly.

"Hey Sakura-chan?" Naruto said nervously; suddenly he was on the ground screaming. "OH MY GOD! WHAT HIT ME?"

"It's a giant rock…" Sakura said moving past him to pick up the large piece, "that's weird." She moved out onto the deck and looked back and forth, there was no one around. "That's really weird, there's no one around."

"Oww… my head." Naruto said standing up and looking out to see the empty street.

"Are you alright?" Sakura asked; Naruto nodded and rubbed his head. "What was it you wanted?"

"Huh?"

"You were about to ask me something. What is it?" She said.

Naruto took a deep breath, "Sakura-chan would you… OWW! WHAT THE FUCK?" Naruto said as another rock hit him in the head.

"Alright! Whomever's hitting Naruto, come on out! This isn't funny!" Sakura yelled.

Navi went to stand up; Yugao held her down and shook her head. "I don't know why you're throwing rocks, but you'll give both of us away."

"Yes, but unlike you I have no loyalties to your 'ho-ka-ge'. You see, I knew her back when she was really drinking, and sometimes her priorities aren't straight."

"I HEAR YOU TALKING! COME OUT!" Naruto yelled. They heard footsteps closing in, Yugao poofed in a small mist of smoke.

"Scared-y cat." Navi stuck a hand out from on top of the roof, "OVER HERE NARUTO-SAN!" She waved her arm around and pulled out a small bottle and took a swig as Naruto and Sakura landed next to her. "Ohiyo."

"Uh, Ohiyo. Navi-san, whey did you throw rocks at me? I thought I was your favorite ninja?" Naruto asked somewhat confused.

"You are, but orders are orders… the stupid old hag." Naruto sighed and Navi nodded in understanding. "So, you know I take it?"

"Hai, I was warned before I came here. Why are you listening to Tsunade?" Naruto asked.

Navi shrugged. "I'm half not doing it and half doing it, personally Kakashi tried to stop me, he thought it would be fine, but Tsunade and Yamato just threw a fit. Something about you guys all alone over here… Blah blah blah. Shika's got the same orders, but since he's never around you… I was dragged over here."

"What orders?" Sakura asked, she placed her hands on her hips and glared at both of them. Naruto and Navi looked away. "Well?"

"Naruto… I'm going to go to an all day fish fry on the right side of the city. Stay away from there, alright?" Navi leaned foreword, patted his head and disappeared.

"Naruto, what orders?" Sakura asked.

"Nothing, forget about it. Let's get back to…"

She grabbed his upper arm and moved him back, she looked at him with a bit of agitation. "The orders that we're supposed to be kept apart, right?"

"I…" Naruto looked up at her, she smiled a bit. He smiled, "who told you?"

"Shikamaru told me before we even reached the city." She turned away and looked down the street. "We better get back." Sakura jumped off the building and Naruto followed closely. "So? You're question?"

She landed a couple feet from the group Naruto landed a few feet behind her and sighed again. "It's nothing." He brushed past her and met back up with the group.

Navi watched as Naruto kept moving past her, she sighed and shook her head. "Stupid girl…" Navi jumped across to the next building and pulled a piece of paper out and tied a small rock to it. She pulled a marker out and began writing a little note. She waited for Sakura to move and chucked it at her.

Sakura caught it as it fell from her forehead; she swore quickly and looked around for the shinobi who didn't reveal herself. She quickly read the note after discarding the rock. 'Idiot-He thinks you don't like him know.' She crumpled the note and threw it on the ground and ran up bedsides Naruto. "Naruto, I'll play you in the dart toss."

She pointed a hand over to the booth and smiled. He looked up, somewhat confused. "Okay." He turned to see a small boy working a stand where there were balloons on a backboard. Sakura went up, said a few things and came back with four needles. She handed two to Naruto and went up to the counter. "We need the ninja version."

"Ah, I expected." The boy said and pressed a large red button on the side. The Board slide backwards as it flipped over revealing very tiny targets. "Prize depends on what ring you hit on the target."

"I bet I can out throw you." Sakura said with a smirk on her face. "You have to… go around in a girl's wig for the rest of the day if you lose!"

"You're on. If I win… You have to go to dinner with me tonight." She smiled, this was what she wanted, and she just hoped Naruto could throw.

"Agreed." She threw a perfect needle in the center. Naruto did the same on a different target. Sakura began to throw and then made it so she hit the second ring on her same target. "The pressures on…"

"No it isn't." Naruto said and threw the needle knocking her first one out. "I win!"

The boy whistled. "I never get tired of watching you guys win this game. Pick your prize, mister."

"Uh?" Naruto looked around the walls seeing only stuffed animals, "That large bird, the blue one on the self." He said pointing up. The boy stared at it and began pulling out a pole. "Here, I got it."

Naruto jumped on the counter and reached up to grab the bird and jumped back down. "Thank you for the game." Sakura said and bowed slightly. Naruto bowed too, "Thanks for the bird."

"Come back later and play again!" The boy said. Naruto held up the bird and looked at it, "I don't know what to do with this thing, and I don't really want it."

"You'll find something to do with it. You've got to know a little kid somewhere." She said and they finally met up with the rest of the group excluding Matsuri and Gaara. "They took off for the market?"

Temari nodded, "well, I really don't want to be here. I always hated carnivals. I'm going to finish setting up the stage for combat. We have to pour the cement. If you need me I'll be just outside the main gates. Come on Shika." She said picking up a small slew of trinket from games.

"Hold on a minute, why do I have to go? I only have to show up tonight and forfeit." He said calmly. "Then I can go back to Konoha and sleep."

She smiled, "didn't anyone tell you? You can't forfeit from the competition? You leave a winner or unconscious, sometimes both."

Shikamaru stood up and sighed, "you know, sometimes I swear your trying to kill me."

They disappeared leaving Kankuro. "Well, looks like I'm stuck with you two. So, what do you guys want to do?"

"I kind of wanted to check out the shopping too." Sakura said and grabbed her small purse from inside her Kimono, "I've been saving up."

"I'm up for shopping." Naruto said and they turned to Kankuro, "want to come?"

"No, shopping's not really my thing. Make sure you show your VIP tickets at all the concessions and shops, they give huge discounts and free stuff when you do. I'm probably going to just hang around here, I get all sorts of prizes and put on puppet shows for the kids. They think it's funny." He said with a genuine smile.

"Here, you use the bird then," Naruto said tossing it at him. They disappeared and left him. Kankuro caught the bird and set it on the ground. He attached Chakra strings and the bird walked over to a group of kids, flapping its wings and everything. The kids smiled, a small girl grabbed it happily and cuddled to it. Kankuro made the animal cuddle back. He let go and the girl had found a new friend.

* * *

"Let's start on this side." Sakura said and walked over to a small candle store. "Hello!" She said to a woman behind the counter. "Our friend said to go around waving out tickets at people." She said laughing and held out her ticket.

"Smart friend. The VIPs get special reserves, that's why the tickets cost more, plus you get to sit in the reserve box for the fireworks!" The woman said and pulled out a small white bag. "We hand make candles here, here's one as a token of our appreciation."

As Naruto walked up she pulled the small round white candle out and smelled it. "Su-goi! Honey right?" The woman nodded. "I'll take ten!"

Naruto showed his pass too, "if they smell that amazing then I suppose I should take mine."

"Get the dirty clothes smell out of your apartment…" Sakura said quietly and reached for her purse as Naruto was handed his. "What's yours smell like?"

He took it out and sniffed if, "… Ramen?"

"That's right!" The woman said coming back. "We make Ramen scented ones too. They're mostly a gag gift, but a lot of men buy them."

"Would you mind if I look around?" Naruto asked placing the candle back.

"Please do, remember the candles smell different when they're lit, so we have lighters placed around so you can light the demo ones." The girl set a small box on the counter and Sakura told her to wait while she shopped around.

"Hey Sakura, smell this?" Naruto said holding a small gold candle up to her, she took a scent and smiled. "It's a Sakura tree…"

"That's cute. Here, hand me one." She said passing back the open candle for a closed box. She walked over and set it down on the counter and went back to standing next to Naruto. He pulled off a candle and smelled it and handed it to her. She shook her head and put it back grabbing another, "Oh, smell this one."

"Smells like clean clothes." She looked at him with a flat face. "Alright, I need to clean."

"Get some of them. It'll help." She said pulling a large box of them off and shoving them at Naruto.

* * *

"They're currently fifteen kilometers east and closing in." The ANBU said to Gaara and Matsuri, they stood in a side alley to be briefed from the crowds. "It's a five person group, two men and three women. We think they may try to use all five Chakra types. What are our orders?"

"Intercept them, I'll send a group out ASAP after you. Right now we have to locate all medical ninjas in the village and get them to safety." The ANBU disappeared, "Matsuri, go find Naruto and alert him, however do not have him and Sakura pull out. We'll make it seem like someone's been badly injured. Crowd control is important."

"I'll report right back to you, Sempai, at your office." She said handing over her shopping bags and jumping out behind her. At the corner in simple blue and green Kimono's and masks, Yugao and Navi stood. Navi turned to her, "You'll be my back up in case of emergency seeing as they already know I'm here."

"Watarimashta." She said and quickly switched to her ANBU mask.

* * *

"Wow, I must say you've bought a lot." The lady said ringing up about forty candles. "You must go through a lot."

"Me and my Mom use them a lot, makes cleaning easier." Sakura handed over her part of the money and Naruto handed her his. "Naruto… Why do you use candles?"

"I don't really, but they smell nice. Figure maybe it would help some. But this doesn't mean you're right." He said confidently taking the bag that held both of their merchandise. "Arigatou!"

"Naruto!" Matsuri said and grabbed his ear and began whispering quickly into it. She pulled away and breathed. "Got it?"

"Hai. Tell him there's more then one defense here, I just don't know where they are."

"ANBU…" She said rolling her eyes. "I have to go report, remember, lives over stuff, um-kay? BYE!" She said and ran out of the building.

"Naruto, what's going on?" Sakura said quickly. He shook his head, "why can't you tell me?"

"On this one, Sakura-chan, can you please just trust me?" He asked quietly as they left the shop. He stood and looked at her, his face stern.

"Of course." She said lightly. "Here, let me carry those, you'll get heavier stuff later on." She said and ran to the next shop ticket out.

* * *

"Hotou!" An ANBU yelled landing in front of the small group of people in similar white clothes. "You will be taken to a small building for interrogations." The rest of the ANBU landed, surrounded them. "Any attempts and we will have no choice but to kill you."

"Onee-san, what do we do?" Said the girl with dark black hair tied back. "They won't let us go to the festival."

"Simple Nee-san, blow threw them." A boy said back.

"Cease talking and put your hands up!"

"Alright… Wind…" The girl said and suddenly a gale picked up and spun sand around them to quickly.

"WHERE'S AN OPENING?" The ANBU leader yelled to the others.

"I CAN'T SEE ANY!" "IT'S A SAND STORM!"

The wind died down and the ANBU looked around the disturbed sands. "Where are we?"

The captain turned around and saw a familiar building, "about twenty minutes from where we just were. BACK TO SUNAGAKURE NOW!"


	5. Chapter 5

"Put everyone at full alert, place all available shinobi outside the city at our wall. All medical shinobi are already in a safe place." Gaara said quietly to Temari and Kankuro. "Also, Guy and Lee were around here somewhere, find them and get them to battle. With different Chakra types, their Taijutsus will serve best at first until we find out what they are."

"What will we do about the festival?" Kankuro asked folding his arms. "If the shinobi suddenly rush to the front, they'll know something happening." Suddenly a large blue flare erupted far off in the distance. "They failed!?"

"Sound the alarms, Temari. Kankuro gather all shinobi, from all villages! Hiyaku!" He said feverishly. They disappeared quickly and Matsuri landed on the window sill. "I informed him Sempai and let him know of an old bunker used during the first and second wars just in case."

"Good. You're to stay and work under me here. I want you to prep the medical ninjas to be on stand by." She nodded and jumped through the office and down the corridor. "There always has to be something." He sighed and watched carefully out the window. By the gate a red signal flare went up. The enemy had been spotted.

He walked over to his desk and sat down and began writing a small note but stopped in the middle of it. "Old habits." Gaara went over to the wall and pushed slightly. The panel moved revealing a red phone. He picked it up and was connected with an operator. "Hello? This is an emergency code 4; I need the Hokage's office."

He waited for a few seconds until the phone picked up to a nervous Shizune. "Kazekage-sama, this is Shizune, Tsunade's in a meeting with the town elders. Can I help?"

"Interrupt her meeting." He said quickly. "Tell her Kage has made a move, they're attacking as we speak."

"Right away, Kazekage-sama…" Her voice faded away and the phone dropped on the other end making a loud banging noise in Gaara's ear.

* * *

Shizune ran out of Tsunade's office, slamming the door in Yamato's face who was waiting on the other side. Kakashi looked over at him and laughed. "I told you not to stand there."

"SEMPAI!" Shizune screamed opening the door. Suddenly both shinobi's turned their attentions to her.

"Shizune, what did I tell you about…"

"The Kazekage's on the phone, he says Kage is attacking!"

"Sakura!" "Naruto!" they said at the same time. Tsunade burst out of the room quickly and ran into her office picking the phone up. "Hello? Hai…. What about Naruto and Sakura?... Understood. Can you handle it?... That much faith in him? Alright we'll start preparing our boarders. Call back if anything happens and keep Temari with them… I told them to have several people watching them."

"This isn't the time!" Was heard by all from over the phone.

"Soka… Deal with them and respond back. Bye." She hung up the phone. "Seems nobody's listening to orders anymore… Kakashi! Yamato! Sound the alarm and get me every ninja in the village here in under two minutes!"

"Hai!" They yelled and disappeared. Tsunade turned to Shizune, "tell the elders and report back to the courtyard." Shizune ran from the room, her heels hitting the floor.

* * *

"What's with the flares?" Sakura asked looking up at the sky from inside a small shop. Naruto grabbed her arm and dragged her out on to the streets and began running with her towards the back mountain. "Naruto! What is it?"

"I'll explain when we get to the shelter. Just whatever happens, don't heal anyone or show any knowledge of medicine!" He yelled and kept pulling but pulled to far; Sakura tripped and landed, Candles, clothes and other items spilling out. "Come on, leave them."

"Naruto, we're ninjas, we can afford a little time." She said stacking them up and trying to stand her ankle slipped again knocking some down. Naruto shoved them back in the bag and picked her up and began running.

"That little time… I'd rather not take that chance." He said and made it to the edge of the mountain and began searching until he found a small crack in the face. "Where that crack is, force some chakra there."

She raised her hand and the minute the blue started a door opened up and they rushed in, he turned behind him to see Shikamaru run in on their heels. "About time I found you, Kage is on the…"

"I know!" Naruto yelled, the door closed behind them and they made their way to a light at the end of the hall. They stopped, "Shikamaru, knock."

"Knock, why? Who's place is this?" He said knocking. From behind a small wooden door a shuffle of feet and some mutters of 'why are people bothering me at a time like this…? It's nap time…' The door opened to a small elderly man who looked at Naruto and Sakura nad smiled. "Well, it's Konoha coming from the secret passage! What a surprise!"

"Ebizou-sama!" Sakura yelled as the moved inside. Naruto set her down on the edge of the large waiting pool. "So, this is your place!"

"Why of course! Now, what are you guys doing waking an old man from his sleep?" He said sitting down next to Sakura, he picked up the foot and let out a small glow healing the muscles quickly. "Chiyo used to sprain her ankles all the time too…"

"Ebizou-sama, Sunagakure is under attack. The Kazekage wanted us to come and hide here for a while if possible." Naruto said slowly. Ebizou looked up and smiled.

"Of course, Chiyo would come back and haunt me if I didn't! Well, I have to go find something to do now… Anyone up for Shogi?"

Shikamaru laughed quickly, "That's my game. I haven't lost in four years." Shikamaru said smiling. "I'll play you."

"Oh, good. I haven't had anyone to play with in a while." Ebizou said pulling out a small board with pieces already on it. "Magnetized, keeps the piece from falling off. Very handy." He led Shikamaru over to a table on the opposite end of the waiting pool to a small table and set the board down.

"Naruto," Sakura said lightly. "What's going on? Why are we hiding?"

"There's a new threat, called 'Kage'. They're kidnapping medical ninjas. That's why Navi's here, that's why Shikamaru isn't leaving yet, why we've had an ANBU following us around all day."

"An ANBU? I didn't notice anyone." She said and thought back and remembered seeing the same person outside every store, "wait, the girl in the festival mask and cheap Kimono?"

"Hai, you didn't notice that until now?"

"How'd you notice that?" She asked just as surprised. Suddenly Naruto remembered his training with Jiraiya and stopped because he didn't want to dive to into it. He shrugged. "Oh well. So what now?"

"We wait until Matsuri comes and gets us." He said sitting down next to her. "I'm sorry I twisted your ankle."

"It's alright; you just wanted to get us to safety. Anyway, it didn't really hurt unless I stood on it." She said rubbing the area with her hand.

* * *

"OHI-YOOOO!" Guy yelled slamming down on his opponent in his lime green Kimono, the small girl with dark hair dodged to the side; he spun quickly and hit her with his other leg landing on a hand. His fingers pushed him up and into a normal gloating position. "I'm glad to be given a chance to stretch out my legs before my first round match where I…"

"Guy-Sensai!" Lee said quickly arriving at the scene in the same outfit. He looked over at the girl who lifted a hand and placed it firmly on the sand pushing her torso up.

"…will dominate in a beautiful…"

"She's getting up!" She moved her knee out in front of her and stood up and stared at him. She raised a hand.

"…and completely original…" Lee rushed over and she had to stop and dive out of the way, Le quickly ricocheted off the ground and threw himself in her directions. He smiled and spun quickly knocking her down in the ground five consecutive times. The girl's body lunged and blood came squirting out of her mouth. "…style! Uh… Lee, I was supposed to beat her!" He said angrily and crossed his arms looking away.

"My apologies Sensai!" Lee said saluting him, "I thought we should take care of her before she attacked you."

"That may be…"

"Shut up and take her body back to the city!" Temari yelled running by, she unfolded her fan and threw a wall of air and sand at an opponent running at them. "Hurry up and go, they can heal each other!"

The man jumped up in the air and threw several Kunai which she blew away easily. Lee grabbed the girl's body and began making a quick path back to Sunagakure, jumping over where Kankuro and his puppets were taking on a blond woman who dealt in poisons.

Lee kept going until he saw the wall and began jumping the levels past the Chunin and Genin that were the back up.

* * *

In the background, Shikamaru and Ebizou were being noisy, telling stories like men do about family and obligations they don't want. Naruto and Sakura sat in silence, observing the calm pool of water that just lay before them. Suddenly Ebizou erupted in joy and gained there attention. "There's no way you can win now! I wo… How did you do that?!"

"You only pay attention to the edges; you need to observe the whole board." Shikamaru said somewhat annoyed. "Even beginners know that."

"Are you calling me a beginner?"

""How annoying…" He muttered.

"I want a rematch!" He said and pointed a finger at Shikamaru who shrugged and put his pieces back in the starting place.

Naruto took a deep breath and accidentally let out a loud sigh. Sakura made a small noise and turned to him. He noticed and shook his head. "You can't tell me there isn't something on your mind. I know you a little better then that."

* * *

The man pulled a sword on Temari and lunged, she close the large fan and blocked with it. They stood face to face, only a few inches apart. "I apologize for your headache."

"Headache?" The man said slowly. Temari head butted him quickly and he went flying back. Matsuri flew by, Kunai in hand and quickly slit his throat and moved on to the next enemy.

* * *

Gaara flung the small girl to the wall off his office and held her there with one of his hands constricting around her throat. "What is Kage's purpose?"

"Fuck you!" She managed to get out; Gaara pulled a kunai and stabbed it into her shoulder. She whined in pain and looked back up at him with teeth bared. She closed her mouth and spit a wad on blood on him. "We'll see you dead!"

Gaara twisted the kunai, "I intend to get something out of you before you die. Why are you after the medical ninjas?"

"I'll tell you something, and you better listen closely." She said, she licked her lips quickly and smiled. "We're the distraction." Gaara pulled the kunai out and shoved it threw her heart nailing her to the wall. She gasped once more, "Tick… tock…"

She died her body hanging. The noise was loud but the quake was worse as Gaara experienced the explosion from the wall to his left. If he were not on guard he would have fallen. "Shit!" He yelled angrily as he leapt out his window over to the damaged area.

* * *

"An explosion?!" Shikamaru said standing up. Ebizou stood as well. "Naruto guard Sakura!" Shikamaru raced across the pool, causing it to ripple with each step, Ebizou followed him.

The elder stopped and turned around, "In case you need it, there's a small room that has been a fall out shelter in the past; go there if the mountain starts to shake, the ceiling may collapse." Another explosion was heard in the background and Ebizou dashed behind Shikamaru out the door.

"Come on, you can guard me while I'm beating the crap out of people." She said standing up. She stared down at him for a second before he stood up with a large grin on his face.

"Alright, let's go!"

* * *

"That's all five." Temari said slowly, "Let's get back." They suddenly turned about face and rushed back to the city where, upon seeing it, could spot the large hole in the wall.

"Let's hurry." Kankuro said and began faster then everyone to the wall until running on each side of him was Guy and Lee. "Search for survivors."

"Alright." Guy said and leapt up onto the rubble and began tossing it away. He was joined by Kankuro, Lee and Shikamaru who all began throwing the rocks down. Temari was about to run to get Gaara when he leapt up and began crushing the rocks into sand with his Chakra.

"Gaara, all the enemy are dead." She said quickly.

"Go call Tsunade, ask for a team to come down as quickly as possible." He said quietly keeping at his work. He found a little boy and pulled him out. Ebizou landed and grabbed the little boy. "Ebizou-sama?"

"Morning, morning! Quiet a ruckus!" Ebizou let a hand boy on the boy sending out some Chakra and he popped into consciousness. "Hello, why haven't you had a harrowing experience?"

"Go get the medical ninjas from inside the Kazekage complex." Gaara told him quickly. The boy left as fast as he could with a 'Hai Kazekage-sama'.".ll dominate in a beautiful... to strech out my legs before . hit her with his other leg landing on a hand. e used to ge


	6. Chapter 6

'Rain…' Sakura said looking up into the clouds, her bright green eyes disheartened as she watched the dark forms over Sunagakure. 'How cliché.' Naruto turned the radio up in the background on Kankuro's orders. They were huddled inside Temari's apartment waiting for Gaara to come over the radio with the announcements. The festival would go on as planned since there were no casualties and much of the wall was already being rebuilt. Temari was in her bedroom changing into her normal clothes, Kankuro was just going to fight in his Kimono; Naruto had grabbed his outfit on the way over and was waiting for Temari to step out so he could change.

She finally opened the door and waltzed out, her fan on her back, "go and change quickly." Temari said quietly walking out and taking a firm standing position next to her little brother. Naruto nodded and walked into the room holding a small bag and shut the door behind him. Temari sighed and turned over to Sakura, "Dishijobou, Sakura?"

"Nothing really, just why everything always happens when I go on Vacation." She said turning around faking a smile. She couldn't get off her mind the small child, a Genin, crushed in the rubble; he'd be going under surgery and a lot of it at that. "So, does Gaara do this a lot, talk over the radio waves?"

Kankuro shook his head, "no, this would only be the second time, the first was after he got back from having Shikaku removed. He must be really worried." Kankuro said and scratched his head, "he's put everything into this week."

"Every detail, every stand, every event, Gaara was over looking all of it." Temari smiled a little and let out a single relief laugh, "He's proving himself the 'hands-on Kazekage', people here aren't used to a leader working so close with them."

The bedroom door opened and Naruto walked out in his normal outfit. He set the bag down next to the couch and sat himself down and stared at the small black box radio. Suddenly chimes began coming on. "Five minutes… Why can't he play something else?"

"Kankuro, he's not going to play that filthy music you enjoy to the public." Temari said grabbing his head and wrenching her hand on top, "Have some consideration for the masses!"

"Hey, Temari, cut it out." Naruto said somewhat seriously, his eyes were stale and focused on the radio. "Even with five minutes, now's not the time to be hitting each other, we all have the possibility to fight tonight."

Temari took off her hand and they sat in silence except for the soft chimes playing in the background. Sakura moved across the room and picked the green turtle that Matsuri had given her and sat down on the couch next to Naruto. She cuddled the animal to her chest and sighed.

"Sakura?" Naruto asked quietly, he looked at her; she met his glance and quickly turned away shaking her head. "Later?" She nodded a bit and heard as the chimes stopped.

"Sunagakure…" Gaara's voice rang out through the speakers, calm and well paced, as if rehearsed. "It's upon today's tragedy that I let the festival proceed as planned. Today's terrorist are trying to strike fear in our hearts, trying to stop the festival. We cannot give in, and I refuse to be beaten by a bunch of hacks that are so cowardly they would set explosives instead of attacking directly." There was a quiet pause. "The first round will begin in twenty minutes; all 16 competitors will need to assemble as assignments will be random. Thank you." The chimes kicked back in.

"You can tell how pissed off he is." Kankuro said. "Well, let's get to the field and see who's up today, shall we?" Kankuro stood up next to Temari and began walking towards the door, she looked at the two and began heading out behind her brother.

The door closed and Sakura turned over to Naruto, her eyes almost crying, "you remember that first boy I pulled up?" Naruto nodded. "He'll never be able to be a ninja again. The probably that he doesn't have pain every day of his life is only at twenty percent after the surgeries. How horrible a life is that?"

"Depends on what you call horrible." Naruto said smiling. "At that point, I'd be thankful to be alive every single day. It's just how you look at things Sakura-chan." Naruto stood up and held a hand out to her, "let's go catch up with Temari and Kankuro before they beat the shit out of each other."

Sakura smiled. She grabbed Naruto's hand letting the turtle have some of its shape back. Naruto led her to the door and they slowly made their way down to the gates.

* * *

Lee stuck his hand in the air and waved at Naruto and Sakura until he saw something, his eyes focused down in and saw it. Their hands were together. Lee stopped and looked over at everyone else. Shikamaru looked over, noticed and turned away quickly diverting his attention away to the rest of the contestants. 4 from Konoha, 4 from Suna, 4 from Kiri and 4 from Iwa. Balanced.

It was right after Naruto let go of Sakura and moved into the small circle of people with only a few spectators around that Matsuri bounced into the lime light. "Alright! We had a random draw these are the first round matches starting in one hour!"

She pulled a small letter out from her ninja pouch, opening it she read it carefully. "Match 1! From Kiri Adji versus from Suna Gaara-sempai!" She quickly reeled around and smiled, "Sempai why didn't you tell me you were competing?"

"Just keep going Matsuri." He said quietly.

"Alright. Match 2! From Konoha Lee versus from Konoha Guy!" Lee and guy stopped to look at each other, then in puzzlement began freaking out trying to say something. "Match 3!" Matsuri continued, "From Iwa Tori versus from Kiri Munio!" Tori head spun around and Adji pointed to a thin looking man in a hat on the other side of her.

"And the final match for today! Match four! From Iwa Fuuko versus from Konoha Shikamaru!" Matsuri folded the letter back up and shoved it back in the hour. "Rules for all competitors! Rule one! You both must remain in the assigned area, ten feet below ground and as high above as you want as long as you're in the area. Rule two, you must be in sight at least once every minute! Finally rule three! If your opponent doesn't surrender, fall unconscious or die, you haven't won yet!"

"Don't say that so happily!" Temari said quickly, "these are serious rules!"

"Sorry, but I'm glad I get to watch Sempai fight!" She said and walked over to Gaara and spun around quickly, "Match 1 starts in one hour!" She said quickly and began talking quickly to Gaara he nodded and smiled.

Sakura walked up behind Naruto and tapped him on the shoulder; he spun around quickly, "Naruto, um… can we go talk somewhere?"

"Uh…" Naruto said freezing up. He couldn't think for a second before Tori slapped his back and Naruto flipped. "NANI?" He said and spun around, "oh, Tori, nani?"

"You make sure to come watch my match alright?" He said and smiled up. Adji waltzed over and jumped on his back, "come on slave boy, out to the Barbeque! I'm starved. We'll see you two at the matches."

Tori carrying Adji slowly began to walk away with Tori muttering "that's very embarrassing, Adji…"

"Sakura-chan, why don't we walk back to Ebizou-sama's? We have to get our stuff." She nodded and he went to go for her hand, she quickly turned and began walking away. Naruto caught up and ignored it shoving his hands into his pockets. Sakura was queit for a second. "Sakura, dishijobou?"

"I… I've been thinking a lot, a lot lot and I… don't think that I can do this." She said lowering her head, trying to come up with the right words to say.

"Do what?" Naruto asked somewhat clueless.

"This!" She said bringing her hands together, "the entire we thing. The us. I don't know if I can do that…"

"Oh…" He said. Naruto's hands clenched into fists and he though for a second his heart stopped.

"No, not like that, don't use that tone." Sakura said quickening the pace. Naruto looked up and began to keep up. "It's just… Look how different we are, you're going to become the Hokage one day and I'll be stuck as…"

"My second in command. It doesn't matter what you are to me at the time when I become Hokage," He said turning away pretending he wasn't struggling with words. "You deserve the position, plus… I'm not too good on the paper work."

"That's not second in command, that's secretary!" Sakura stopped and grabbed his collar, "What makes you think I'll do you're paper work?"

"Because you're the only one who could! I know Tsunade makes you do hers sometimes." She dropped him and continued on. "Anyway, what makes you think we're so different?"

"Well, you always go charging head first into things."

"You go charging in with your fist first." Naruto said, he had just started to enjoy himself. 'I hope I can keep up with this…' "Any other differences you need clarified?"

"You're not going to make this easy." She said and forced some chakra into the wall when they arrived. It opened and they walked in. "I just think were a little naive…"

"So?"

"And too young."

"All the better, you can't honesty think things will be better when were the Sanin's age do you? I know for a fact that both Jiraiya and Tsunade were upset that they had waited, but oh well, they were set in their ways." Naruto stopped and picked up the things not letting Sakura carry anything, he turned to her and looked her in the face. "You can't honesty tell me that's what you want to be when you grow up."

"Hello!" Ebizou yelled rushing out when Naruto was finishing his sentence. "I see you two are getting your things, well, be careful and remember to come back and visit, I don't see that many people any more…" He said sadly.

Sakura walked over and placed a hand on his should, "we'll come back and visit whenever we can, alright Ebizou-sama."

"You really are a little sweet heart…" He said smiling warmly, "before you leave, make sure to visit Chiyo, I think she likes the company too."

"We will!" Naruto said smiling. "We'll see you later?"

He nodded and Sakura went to open the door to the hallway letting Naruto through, "bye Elder Ebizou!"

"Take care you two!" He said and closed the door behind him.

"You used 'we', Sakura-chan." Naruto said giggling.

"Naruto…"

"Just admit it, even if you don't like me THAT much, you do like me somewhat." He said as they emerged and jumped up onto the nearest building and began making their way to Temari's.

"Of course I like you, technically, you're my best friend, and I don't see why I would want to muddle that up." She said and leapt down to the door. "It's just that…" She shrugged and swung the door open. "What if we fight."

"Then we fight, big deal. Everyone fights.' Naruto said and walked in and set the prizes from earlier down. He turned to her, Sakura was just walking in the door. Naruto grabbed her wrist and pulled her in to close the door, then he let her go. "Do you WANT to go out with me?"

"Well, want and should are two different things and I…" She took a deep breath and blew out the air sighing at the end and shrugged again.

"Do you WANT to though?" Naruto asked again.

"Yes… but…"

He smiled, "now that we've gotten passed that, shouldn't you do what you want? We may have to work every second of our lives if told to but there's nothing in there about dating! I looked it up."

"Looked it up in what?" She said putting her hands on her hips.

"Um… well… Ichich… But hey, you know I'm right." He said pointing a finger at her. "If you want something then go for it right? I want to be Hokage and I'm going for it! So…"

Sakura took a few steps foreword and pressed his hand down till he dropped his arm. "You suck at arguing." She smiled and grabbed his hand. "I'll think about it."


	7. Chapter 7

**Aki here! **Hey all, well, i'm half way through (that's right 14 chapters) so wish me luck two more should becoming tomorrow if I can step off neopets for a second. **Read and Review!**

* * *

Naruto sat on the side on the large rectangle assigned for the battle and looked out onto the field as the fourth match walked out. Gaara had beaten Adji easily in the first match. In the second match Guy though he and Lee had an understanding that they would both forfeit, Lee roundhouse kicked guy to the face who left the area to be disqualified. The last match Tori had nearly lost but won at the last minute when the opponent ran out of chakra and dropped unconscious; both were taken to the hospital. The whistle sounded and next to him ran Matsuri who waved two flags in each hand and the bright yellow whistle kept going off.

The green flag with the Konoha symbol waved and Shikamaru jumped in the area. Temari was right, no trees, however there were now a couple tunnels in the area, an advantage to him. The brown flag with Iwa's symbol then went up and a small girl covered in white bandages jumped out onto the field. The whistle blew again, the match started. The girl was named Fuuko and she was a trap specialist. She rushed at Shikamaru and missed as he jumped out of the way; landing he sent out his shadow. She quickly raised her fingers and yelled, "Kai!"

Several small detonations went off around him, he was forced to jump again. She threw a kunai which missed again and went way passed him until she jerked her hand, he noticed and pulled a kunai in time to reverse and knock the thing out of the air. As he landed next to an area she hadn't been in he stood up and looked over at her. "You a tactician too?"

"Hai, my specialty." Suddenly the line lit up with chakra and was stuck on his foot. "And now you're a puppet…"

"And you're not going to be." Shikamaru said, the shadow crept up from the hold behind her and grabbed her legs, the two hand slowly climbed and grabbed around her neck slowly choking her. Fuuko's head dropped and Shikamaru released her, she was unconscious on the ground. "Too easy."

"You're right!" Said the ninja jumping up from the sand behind him. The other Fuuko crumbled into dirt. He turned and met her kunai to kunai. "I know now that you've used a lot of your chakra." They hit blades again and jumped back. "I've got the upper hand."

"You talk too much, kai!" He said suddenly and several large detonations went off around her in a fiery torrent.

"Sugoi!" Naruto yelled jumping up, he was joined as Matsuri stared in awe. "I didn't know he would use something like that!"

"You Konoha always amaze me!" Matsuri yelled happily. "Let's see if she's dead or not!" Matsuri said watching carefully as the smoke cleared. There was nothing there, "Iwa's starting to amaze me too!"

Shikamaru smiled as the sand behind him shifted and she jumped out again, "KAI!" He yelled again and jumped as another large detonation went off as he threw two kunai with strings attached, moving them carefully as he pulled the strings looping them around her, trapping her in the fire.

"Nope, Konoha's back on top of the amazing list!" Matsuri said, the smoke began clearing away and screams could be heard. Temari jumped on the field and pulled her fan, she was one of the referees for today. With a mighty swing she blew the smoke and fire away, leaving the girl screaming, the bandages gone burned away with large chunks of her skin. "I GIVE! I GIVE!" She screamed as she fell to her knees screaming.

"Winner, Shikamaru of Konoha." Shikamaru ignored that and ran over to her pulling off the strings and picking her up jumping from the field, Temari directly behind them. They carefully maneuvered over the roof tops until they found the hospital where they jumped through a large window to the ER. "Here, she needs burn treatments." Shikamaru said setting her down on a gurney.

"Hai!" A nurse yelled grabbing the gurney and running her in ringing a bell. "Severe burns!" She screamed pushing the bed through two large doors.

"Shika, that was cruel." Temari said quietly. "She was just a Genin."

Shikamaru pulled out a lighter and a cigarette and walked over to the window. "She would have done the same to me. Don't tell anyone I'm smoking, they yell at me."

"She didn't know any better." Temari argued, "She was barely eleven, so you think she could have even possibly won against you?"

"No. But she made a lot of smoke, if she used higher notes like I did, she could have, but I would have been able to spot those." He inhaled quickly and turned back to her, "Now all you have to do is win you're match and ask that we be put in the same match." He smiled.

Temari smiled back, "You know; now I'm really going to beat the shit out of you." She laughed quietly.

* * *

"How exciting! Sugoi, sugoi, sugoi!" Matsuri chimed. She pulled out her watch and checked the time, "well, twenty minutes to sunset starts. I'm off to get food, later Naruto!" Matsuri said bouncing away. Naruto smiled and began to head off himself. On the way out he ran into Lee, "hey Lee, that was funny when you kicked Guy-Sensai in the face! Man that's something to remember!"

"No!" Lee cried. "It was shameful! I should forfeit!"

Naruto hit him, "don't be a dumb ass! You're through to the next round, and Gaara wanted to fight you!" Naruto said then sighed. "Oh well, I have to go tell Sakura about the matches."

"Oh, why wasn't she here? Is she sick or something?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, hey why don't you come with me, I'm sure it'd help in explaining the matches."

"Alright." Lee gave a thumbs up and they began moving over the sands towards the apartment. "Hey Naruto-kun, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. As long as it's not about how chakra works… because I'm pretty lost on that still." He said and laughed some. And they kept running until they saw the building and slowed down. "So, what is it?"

"Are you and Sakura-san… eh…" Naruto shook his head. "Oh because I was just wondering since you were… uh… holding hands and…" Lee said perking up happily. 'I still have a chance!'

"We don't know yet." Naruto said and began walking up, "just don't talk about it around Sakura, alright?"

They headed up and the door opened and Sakura walked out, she saw them and smiled, "Hello, I was just going for dinner. You two want to come?"

"Sure, right Lee?" Lee nodded and gave a thumb up. "So, where are we going?"

Sakura shrugged and moved past both of them. "Let's wander until we find a nice place, alright?" She began to walk slowly into the business district, Naruto and Lee followed her discussing the matches. It wasn't long before Sakura stopped at a small restaurant, "how's this?"

"Looks good to me, Sakura-san!" Lee said smiling. "I hope they have curry."

"They probably do Lee." Naruto said walking in first, he was greeted by a bright perky young girl, "Hello and welcome to Ibuki's! Three people?"

"Hai." Naruto said smiling back at the girl; she walked across the restaurant and pointed to a small booth and sat them down. Sakura moved over to the window, Naruto took the seat next to her and Lee sat on the opposite side. "So, Sakura, you missed Lee's match!"

"I did… Was it good Lee?" She smiled and asked; Lee hung his head and began sobbing. "What did I say?"

"SHAME! I kicked Guy-Sensai out of the area when he was going to have both of us forfeit at the same time!" Lee yelled, "what type of horrible person am I?"

"Well, did you win?" Sakura asked, Lee nodded slowly, "then you're the victor. It's nothing to cry about, if Tsunade was about to do that, I'd would have knocked her out of the country, mainly because she'd kill me afterwards… Anyway, congratulations Lee!" Lee slammed his head on the table.

"He'll be fine." Naruto said quickly. "Hey, Sakura-chan, did you want to finish checking out the shops?"

"Hai, but it's getting late don't you think?"

Naruto thought for a second and shook his head tapping on his headband. "We're ninjas; we can be scared of the dark. Anyway, someone told me it's when they light all the lanterns."

Sakura took a deep breath, "alright… I guess."

* * *

"Casualty five… Not that bad, Heme…" Said a small pale man with long white hair to the short figure shrouded in a black veil. The princess looked up, "except that none of theirs were killed, however, we picked out to healers who rushed to the scene, an old man with a large mustache and a girl with pink hair, both were more then exceptional. Would you like to purse them, Heme?"

"The old man wouldn't survive long, bring me the girl though. She would last longer and have a greater potential as a power source." The form said. "She may work well; her life will suffice me for a while. Get her, quickly and swiftly, bring the old man as a back up." He voice turned aggressive. "I must have them by tomorrow evening, do you understand, Mistaki?"

"Hai Heme, watarimashta." He said and began walking out of the small dark room, he opened the door and stepped outside into the blazing light of the newly growing forest, "Team 2, team 3, and team 4!"

Six ninjas jumped down to land in the lower branches of the juvenile trees. They were all in simple white hospital clothing with surgical masks on. "We are the last seven keeping the Heme alive, let's make this work smoothly. Team two, you're target is a pink haired ninja from Konoha, team 3, you're target is an old man, I think he maybe a Sunagakure elder. Team 4, you are to wipe out any guards."

"Hai!" Rang out from the six and they vanished. Mistaki crossed his arms, "Sakura better be able to defend herself or Tsunade's going to be pissed." He whispered under his breath.

* * *

Sakura took a bit of her food and stopped grabbing her glass of water; she chugged the liquid down and stopped to breath, "that is spicy…"

"But delicious, it's one of the better curries!" Lee said happily. "I've been reading up on Sunagakure's curries all day! This is so far the best one."

"I'm glad I got ramen…" Naruto muttered. He slowly took small bites; Sakura shoved the small bowl of curry at Lee telling him he could have it. She still had a large plate of sushi. Lee was shoveling the spicy curry into his mouth like he was going to die. Lee finished and drank the entirety of his water.

"I feel energized! I'm off to find a manly display of friendship around the city." Lee yelled and rushed from the booth and out into the city.

"He's embarrassing sometimes…" Naruto said slowly.

"Self recognization…"

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Well, I'm almost finished; do you want to head out soon?" Sakura said and grabbed the last bit of sushi between her chopsticks. She ate it daintily. Naruto however put the bowl to his mouth and drank the rest of the ramen. He stood up out of the booth and held out a hand, forgetting the earlier things, to help her up. "Naruto…" She said quietly and nodded towards his hand.

"Gomen-ni… I forgot." He peeled his hand back and stuck it in his pocket. Sakura got out and they began to walk out having paid for the meal before they received it, a policy they thought was silly. As they started out a figure jumped down in front of them, she began to speak quickly. "Stay inside as much as possible, Naruto she must always be in your sight."

"Who are you?" Naruto asked.

"Hi Yugao!" Sakura said smiling, "long time no see, how are you doing?" The ANBU disappeared. "They're so rude sometimes…"

"You're not supposed to recognize them in public, remember? Well, let's get going quickly then. Pick a shop." Naruto said quickly.

"Um… Look! A gift shop!" Sakura said and walked across the street and flashed her VIP pass. The counter lady gave her a small gift basket and began talking about deals and what not. Naruto hung out by the door and stared, spacing out. A hand grasped his shoulder and he turned to see Shikamaru, smelling of smoke.

"Hey Naruto, what's up?" He asked, the smoke smell stronger when he talked.

"You were off smoking again!" Naruto said freaking out. "What did we tell you about that!"

"Stop making such a scene." Shikamaru said as Sakura walked over, "hey Sakura. Tsunade called, she wants to speak with you on the phone later."

"Oh, okay." She said and held out the basket, "look, they gave me soap, lotions and all this bath stuff, cool huh? Here, will you carry it for me?" She said putting a pitiful look on her face and handing it to Naruto. He nodded quickly and held the basket by the handle. "Arigatou, Shika, if you'll excuse us, I have to go shopping."

"Alright, just keep your guard up." He said and disappeared.

"Come on, there's a cooking shop next door." Sakura said and began to walk outside, Naruto following directly behind her. They entered the cooking shop and Sakura went over to the counter, "hi, I have a VIP pass." Sakura said calmly and held it out.

"Oh, well we have a nice little goody bag for you. Remember to come back and shop with us." She said and handed her a small red bag. She thanked the woman and set the bag in the basket. "So, Naruto…"

"Yeah?" He said feeling how heavy the basket was getting.

"I've been thinking… about the thing earlier." She said and spun around, "if you can find a way to properly ask me… I'll say yes."

"Then would you mind carrying these while I go find a way to properly ask you out?" She grabbed the basket and Naruto was about to rush outside, "I'll have to do it later; I have to watch you so you don't get injured."

"That's fine, back to bag duty then." She laughed.


	8. Chapter 8

"These are the new sleeping arrangements due to the elevated threat." Temari said, she Matsuri, Sakura, Naruto, Shikamaru and Kankuro were assembled in her living room trying to find a way to better protect Sakura. "I will be taking Sakura's place in her bed, the door will be left open and we will leave her headband out. Sakura and Matsuri will be staying at Naruto's hotel room. Naruto and Kankuro have arrangements for the a joining room to Naruto's original room and finally Shika will be staying in my room.

"Orders from Tsunade, follow them carefully! Gaara has also ordered that if we are attacked, launch this blue flare, we are each getting two, Sakura will be getting three. Gaara has stationed for five people to be on guard at the five highest points at all times." She said sternly. "Lastly, this mystery informant of Tsunade's may or may not be trying to trap us, so everyone be on your guard!"

"Hai!" Rang out and Temari handed out the flares. The room disbursed except for Temari and Shikamaru. Shikamaru just sat on the couch, "So, when are they supposed to attack?"

"I don't know, but they will be here in approximately forty minutes, I have to go put pink dye in my hair."

"Is it permeate?" Shikamaru asked laughing. Temari flipped him off and went into the bathroom taking her hair down.

* * *

"Don't slack off!" Kankuro said stiffly, "there should be one awake and one asleep. Decided on who gets the first shift and who gets the second shift. And stick to it, if you're about to fall asleep wake the other so they can take over. Well see you in the morning." Kankuro opened the door and walked in.

"Let's go through Naruto-kun's boxers!" Matsuri yelled and rushed into Naruto's room. He frowned quickly and shook his head. Matsuri popped back out, "just kidding!" She went back in; Sakura walked up and smiled. "Goodnight, Naruto."

"Goodnight Sakura-chan." He smiled back and she went off into his room and shut the door. Naruto took a deep breath and walked into the room. Kankuro was taking his socks off and setting them by the spare pallet on the floor. "Hey Kankuro, you're older then I am right?" Naruto said pointing a finger at himself.

"If you're implying I'm old I'd like to remind you I'm only a year older." Kankuro said and sat down on his pallet, cross legged looking at him. "Why?"

Naruto sat down in front of him, "I have to find a good way to ask Sakura out, do you know any?"

Kankuro was taken a back for a second, stunned and surprised. "I wasn't expecting that..." He said and scratched his head. "I'm no good with girls, you'd have to ask Gaara."

"Gaara?" Naruto said now sharing Kankuro's thoughts. "Seriously, Gaara has experience in that category. I never pinned him like that..."

"It's just he caters to Matsuri's every whim! A complete push over for her and she was mean to him as a kid but now it's hard to tear them apart if you haven't noticed." Kankuro said slowly. "You can ask him tomorrow at the festival, he'd know at least where to start. The one thing I know, is a present is always good, like flowers. Temari makes me watch those stupid movies with her."

"Why? Can't she watch them buy herself?" Naruto asked getting up and lying on his bed.

Kankuro let out a 'Heh...' "She needs someone to run and get her more tissue every five minutes. I have no clue why women bawl over movies like that."

* * *

"Here…" The girl of team 3 said landing next to the rock. She focused and phased through the slab. The entranced opened and her partner walked in behind her. They slowly made their way to the wooden door. "Knock or not?"

"Knock, we must be polite." He said and raised a hand well above her head and tapped lightly.

"COMING, Jezze O' peat! It's nearly midnight…" The door opened to Ebizou, "you're those Kage fellows aren't you?"

"Our reputation is spreading brother." The girl said happily. "Yes we are, and you are coming with us."

"I'm sorry, but the Kazekage said to kill you on sight." Ebizou said and suddenly the hall was filled with a thick pink smoke, Ebizou disappeared in the mess.

"Sister, it's poison!" The man said and dropped to his knees.

"Dametai!" She yelled falling down on one of her hips.

Ebizou walked over, unaffected by the smoke. "The Kazekage figured since you were stealing medical ninjas, none of you are actually medical ninjas, and would not have though to bring anti-poison. Well, I have to go call him now, it'll only be… Opps, well, there I go ranting again." Ebizou said looking down at the corpses. He kicked the girl's hand back into the hall and closed the door.

* * *

"'Temari, I hear something. Be on guard.'" Shikamaru said through the small headset, Temari just had a receiver in her ear; she really didn't care about being attacked right now, whether it'll last fifteen minutes or not, the hair color was pissing her off. She lay there, facing the other direction just swearing inside her head. It was then the door opened, "Temari, It's Kankuro, they've capture Sakura!"

She popped out of bed and grabbed the fan from underneath and rushed passed Shikamaru. "Kusou! How could they have let this happen?"

"One of them transformed into Naruto and does her with poison. Naruto's been trailing them for two mintues." He said as he popped out, in the sitance you could see Kankuro vaulting away over the rooftops. Shikamaru and Temari started out, "Matsuri's reporting to Gaara, and if you're lucky, the rain will hit before we get into combat."

"Shut up." She said bitterly.

* * *

Naruto flung a kunai and hit the man in the white clothes that had Sakura, his shoulder began bleeding badly and he dropped to the desert floor setting her down. "For someone who uses poison, your not a very good medical ninja."

"I'm not a medical ninja at all, I'm more or less a spy, a torturer…" He said and shifted forms, he looked like Sakura. He voice came over, "you're not going to hurt me again are you? My shoulder… it hurt so badly…"

"Sakura isn't a wimp, bastard!" Naruto said, he was suddenly joined by two clones. They all worked on the large Rasengan and then the third clone disappeared and they rushed at the man. "Omega Rasengan!"

The form was hit square in the front, the body stood a little before it was flung in the air, spinning and crashing into the sands. Naruto's clone went over to check on the body, they were gone so the clone disappeared. Naruto picked up Sakura in both arms and slowly shook her, she didn't wake up. "Stop right there!"

Kankuro yelled not seeing the other body in the distance. Naruto turned around, "Mazdai, mazdai! I'm Naruto."

"Prove it!"

"What the hell do you think, I'm in freaking boxer!" Naruto yelled back.

"Oh, but you could have stripped!"

"Kankuro who in their right mind would do that?" Naruto yelled back, Shikamaru and Temari stopped behind them. The rain just stopped. "Don't tell me it's raining now…"

"Hum…" Sakura said moving; she looked up and jumped out of Naruto's arms pulling a kunai. "Who are you?"

"FOR THE LAST TIME I'M NARUTO!" He screamed.

"Not good enough!" Sakura yelled charging.

"Sakura, the seal!" Shikamaru yelled she stopped and looked down at his stomach. "That's genuine only to Naruto, there's no way they could have copied that."

"Oh, yeah, I suppose… Wait a minute…" She blushed and turned around, "someone give him some clothes!"

"HELP!" Rang out over the sands, everyone but Sakura turned, "NARUTO!"

"She's the imposter!" Temari said tackling Sakura to the ground, Naruto and Shikamaru raced across the cool sands towards the screaming, there was the real Sakura and a large man in white standing above her making seals with his hands.

"Tajj! Kage no bushin!" Naruto screamed and suddenly he and several others rushed over, the actual Naruto got in the first hit, but his hand reach back as the form turned to stone, and Sakura instantly dropped beneath the sands. "What the Hell?"

"We're just in time then!" Kakashi said running up with Mrs. Inuzuka and Kiba who was riding Akahamaru. Kakashi disappeared beneath the sands as well and was gone for a second. "Hey, Naruto! Why aren't you dressed?"

"I was sleeping! What is it with this damn 20 Question thing?" Naruto screamed.

Kakashi slowly rose out of the ground with a injury in his arm. "Let's go, I know where their base is now." Kakashi said. "Let's go!"

They slowly filed in behind Kakashi heading for a large patch of newly growing trees. Temari and Kankuro were shock, "how did we miss this? Trees don't grow in the desert!"

"It's mobile, that's why the trees are so small. Most of the roots were wrapped around the bases and not in the ground." They eventually ran onto dirt and into the growth. "Naruto, Rasengan that doorway."

"Hai!" He crossed his fingers and a clone appeared. Naruto stuck out his hand, the clone quickly made the Rasengan and disappeared. "Rasengan!" He shouted, the orb of Chakra hit the stone and carved in until it suddenly broke apart, giving way, and collapsing into large shards on the ground.

Walking out of the darkness was the Sakura impersonator. The body was greatly warped. "So I see you're here to try again." She began making hands signs and Kiba quickly transformed with Akahmaru, "Shikyaku!" He yelled and was joined by another Kiba, they jumped up and began to drill into the body, both of them eventually piercing it. The emerged on the other side, Kiba on Kiba, then Akahamaru changed back.

"Kiba! Now you're jacket and Akahamaru's furs all covered in blood!" Mrs. Inuzuka yelled.

"Mom, can you drop the laundry for one day?" Kiba said irked. Naruto ignored them and headed past on his own into the dark. The small candles on the walls didn't help much but he could clearly see any enemy ahead, he made a fist, tightened it and swung quicktly cracking the bones of the man in front of him.

"So," He said turning and falling to the ground, "you're Naruto… Sakura's being held at the end of the tunnel. Kill the veiled creature first, otherwise you'll never save her."

"Who are you?" Naruto said picking his hair up and looking at him carefully. "Are you the informant?"

"Hai. I'm a former subordinate of Tsunade's. My name is Mistaki, please go save Sakura-san." Mistaki sat up and began healing himself, "haiyakou!"

Naruto peeled out of the hallway, his feet beginning to hurt from being slapped to the floor of hard dirt. It was an opening that shown a bright blue light causing Naruto to run harder that he saw was significant. As he entered the room he stopped, there in the center, hung up by her wrists, was Sakura, Chakra was flowing out of her quickly leaving her body looking deteriorated. He looked around, 'find the creature… creature…'

"There!" Naruto yelled and began running towards a black veiled figure absorbing the Chakra. He clenched his fist again and swung. He hit dead on; the Chakra flow stopped instantly.

There was a scream from what sounded like a young girl, the veil went up and there was a small child. "No… please, I need the Chakra or I'll die."

"A vampire or sorts huh?" Naruto said, "Vampires deserve to die!" Naruto let another swing down on her, there was a loud crushing noise.

Naruto shook off his fist and walked over to Sakura, he jumped up and the ceiling and pulled the rope dangling her up and grabbed one of her arms, using his other hand to undo the knot. Pulling Sakura up to him, Naruto jumped down carrying her out towards the hallway. It was then Kakashi and the rest ran in. "Are you alright?"

"She's not, where's Mistaki, we need a healer fast!"

"I'm here…" He said walking in holding his back, "set her down and lend me your chakra." Mistaki knelt down carefully as Naruto lowered Sakura down, Mistaki placed a hand over Naruto's; the glow was a brilliant white instead of plan blue. "It's a pure Chakra injection, tell Tsunade I'll stop by and teach her, she's been wondering about it."

"Alright." It was rapid, Sakura filled out again and gained her color back. She was sleeping quietly now. "Let's get to Sunagakure and get her in bed."

"Hai, Mistaki, are you the only members of Kage?" Kakashi asked picking up Sakura.

Mistaki shook his head. "There's five more creatures, and every month, they create a new creature. They feed off of medical Chakra."

"Can you give us base locations?" Mistaki nodded. "Then you'll becoming back to Konoha with us."

"But… I have to go find Navi!"

Naruto patted him on the back, "she's in Suna. Come on, I bet she'll be there waiting."

* * *

Yugao landed on the window and knocked as she saw Kakashi place Sakura down. "You missed your duty."

"I was busy. Kage launched a side attack on a nearby village, I thought they were heading here." Yugao looked down through her mask, "I still failed, didn't I Kakashi?"

"No one can see the future. Keep tracking and killing them, Yugao, you'll still be doing your missions." She nodded and took off. Kakashi walked out into the main part of the room. Naruto was just walking in adjusting his headband in full clothes. "You should get some sleep, Kankuro told me you have a match tomorrow."

"Screw the match, I have to keep watch over Sakura." He went inside the room, sat down against the door and pulled a kunai. "I messed up one time, and I'm not messing up again."

Kakashi shrugged, Temari walked into her apartment hearing the discussion. "Don't worry; I'll make him get some sleep." Nodding Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke, "you know, there is a door!" She said grabbing her fan and dispersing the smoke with a quick, fluid movement. "Naruto, get some sleep, I'll keep watch tonight."

"Okay." Naruto said, instead of getting up and leaving, Naruto just passed out dead asleep.

"You're a very irking person… You know that right?"


	9. Chapter 9

"Winner Matsuri of Sunagakure!" Gaara said holding up the Suna symbol on the tan flag over the blue flag of Kiri. Matsuri smiled, she jumped up tossing afist in the air yelling at the top of her lungs. Gaara laughed as Matsuri bounced over to him singing "'Matsuri's through to round two! Then she'll get through to three too!' Right sempai?"

"Maybe, depends on who you're up against." He said on the side and turned back switching out the flags. He grabbed Iwa's small flag and Konoha's small flag. "Match eight! From Iwa, Tanzou! From Konoha, Naruto!"

Naruto jumped in on the left side, which was filled with holes and glass from explosions. Tanzou, a thick burly man jumped in on the other side, he cracked his neck and stuck out his fists. Gaara attempted to hand Matsuri the whistle but she grabbed it while it was still round his neck and blew, causing minor neck injuries.

Tanzou began to rush towards Naturo, his hands blaring Chakra. Naruto crossed his hands and had a few clones appear. They moved as fast as they could, dodging and one snuck behind him and changed. He turned around and saw the form of a beautiful young naked woman. "Hey there mister, you want to come play?"

"YES!!" He said rushing.

"Will you forfeit for me?"

"YES!!" Tanzou screamed. The clones disappeared.

"Easier then I thought. It only took me a few minutes to come up with the plan, I saw you gawking at the women in the audience, it wasn't hard to come up with a strategy against you."

Gaara smiled and raised Konoha's flag, "by forfeit, Konoha wins."

* * *

"How's she doing?" Shikamaru asked a nurse in the ER, the same one he handed Fuuko off to yesterday. Shikamaru had begun smoking a cigarette and decided to stop by.

"Oh, she's fine, we had a ninja on staff that day. She was released yesterday and returned to Iwa."

"Arigatou." He said turning around taking the cigarette out of his mouth.

"You look just like Azuma, Shika, except the hair." Temari said from the door way. "Maybe we need to cut it?"

"Ah… no." Shikamaru said walking over to her. He stuck the cigarette back in his mouth, inhaled and brought it back down blowing the smoke away from them. "So, came here to see that I'm not cruel?"

"You're still cruel, I just wanted to see if you'd like to… go to dinner, we need to discuss the chunin exams and I'm getting hungry so I thought…"

"Whatever." Shikamaru said quickly before Temari ran out of excuses. "Let's go then." He said leading the way. "Do I really look like Azuma?" He said smiling.

"Look." Temari said pointing to a mirror on the wall. He did, and it made him even happier. "Why do you like looking like Azuma?"

"He was a second father, a mentor and one of my best friends. More then that… he was a good man." Shikamaru grabbed his string holing his hair and pulled it off. Taking his hand he ruffled the hair and looked back up, "and now, I look like Azuma when he was my age…"

"Alright, enough of the mirror, come on." Temari said pushing him away.

* * *

"Congrats, Naruto." Sakura said sweetly.

"Thanks Sakura, um, I have to go talk to Gaara, I'll see you later, alright?" Naruto said and took off after Gaara and Matsuri. Sakura shrugged and went off after Lee and Guy. Naruto caught up to Gaara and Matsuri while he was lecturing her. "You should try to be less showy and hit more directly. Hit hard and faster then you did today, alright?"

"Hai Sempai."

"Ah… Gaara, Kankuro told me to ask you about girls." Gaara looked nervously at him.

"I don't know where Kankuro thinks…

"I'll help Naruto-kun!" Matsuri yelled, "come on, my mom's a hopless romantic!" She said and grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

Gaara sighed, "I'm going to beat Kankuro up…"

"I'm surprised you don't know how to ask a girl out Naruto-kun, all you do is ask and boom!"

"It's not that easy, I have to do it perfectly!" He said quickly and they landed at a small house on the edge of the city next to the wall, the open desert within veiw.

"Training under Jiraiya and not a clue, he really didn't teach you did he? He just trained you, what a guy." She said taking a deep breath, "oh well! Gar-san!" Matsuri yelled stepping inside the house, "Gar-san!"

"Over here, Matsuri-chan." Her mother said stepping out of the kitchen with a plate and a rag drying it off. "Oh, a friend from Konoha? Hello there."

"Mom, he needs girl help. He's trying to ask a friend out and he wants to do it perfectly."

Her mother laughed, "there's no such thing as perfect young man, but I can get you close. So, have you thought of anything yet?" Naruto shook his head, "good, and empty slate." Matsuri sat down on the couch as her mother set the dish down and threw the rag over her shoulder. She grabbed a large red book from off the shelf.

"That's what I though you were going to do!" Matsuri said. "It's a collection of notes my parents kept when they were dating up until he died a few years back."

"I'm sorry, what happened."

Her mother looked down. Matsuri took a deep breath. "He was assigned to attack Gaara, and Gaara killed him…But it's all on the last Kazekage."

"That's right, he was a horrible man." Her mother said quickly and set the book down on Matsuri's lap.

* * *

"So, Lee, do you know who you're going up against tomorrow?" Sakura asked walking besides him and Guy.

Lee shook his head, "we'll know when we get called on the field. I heard for tomorrow, Ebizou-sama has volunteered to referee."

"He's such a nice person, shame he lost Chiyo-ba-sama." Saukra said lightly, "so, have you two done any gift collecting?"

"Gift collecting?" Guy said… "That's right! WE GET FREE STUFF! LEE!"

"Hai, Guy-Sensai!" Lee said snapping to attention.

"Let's go shopping!" Guy shouted making a pose. They began to run off and visit each shop. Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Those two."

"It's Sakura-san!" Adji yelled running over to her. "How are you?"

"I'm good, Adji-san. How are you doing?" Sakura replied trying to be friendly.

"Tired, that Gaara person beat the shit out of me, look." She said sticking her arm out to reveal a large scar. "I'm just waiting around until Tori gets released tonight. What are you up to?"

"Nothing much, I'm just thinking of going back to my room and taking a nap."

"No! Come and go carnival gaming with me! It'll be fun, girl time and stuff!" Adji said making a pouting face. Sakura gave in and the two headed over to the games. "Alright, so, Sakura-san, what would you like to play?"

Sakura thought for a minute and smiled turning to her, "want a TV?"

* * *

"What are you talking about Navi? You got up and left the next morning, not me!" Mistaki said defending himself against Navi's accusations. "I thought I was bad in bed for two years!"

"We were seventeen, what did you expect me to do? I got embarrassed!" Navi said, that had seated themselves in a small empty little bar with just themselves and the tender who was finding it hilarious. "Anyway, it's not may fault it took you two years to get back into bed."

"That's not the point; you just don't get up and disappear for twenty-six years!"

"And why not? It's allowed! Keep, another Sake."

"Two more." Mistaki said raising two finger and turning to him really quickly. "You know, I though it would be the best thing to wake up next to you, but no, you just fucked that up!"

"Watch that tongue of yours, you still swear like no tomorrow." Navi said as the keep placed the Sakes down and she picked hers up and gulped it. He did the same and they set their glasses down in unison.

"You know what'll solve this?"

She raised her hand thinking and smiled as she remembered. "Poker!" He nodded and pulled out a deck. "Wagers?"

"The tab." He said quickly.

"Done! Deal them Squeakers!"

He stopped and starred at her hoping she would have forgotten his name. "Fine… Hopper." She scrunched up her face. "Yes, I do remember our childhood."

Navi turned to the bartender, "how many's the limit?"

* * *

"So, Gaara was thinking of asking Tsunade to change the test for nerves, wants to make the team think that they'll be in serious danger." She said picking up some noodles with her chopsticks.

"Wasn't the test enough? Anyway there's no way we can do that easily on a mass scale besides planning a small scale invasion." Shikamaru said. He had finished only getting a small side of rice and some sushi. He pulled out the carton and hit it down letting the cigarette popped out. He copied Azuma to a tee and lit it after putting the carton away. "Until we're ready to put that much dedication into something, the test will suffice."

"It's just, he thinks it needs to be a little more stressful."

"Unlike you, my team didn't have a Jinchuriki or a great combat fighter. It was harder then Hell for us, as someone who went through in a normal squad."

"Who's the great combat fighter?" She said thinking she was going to get complemented.

"That'd also be Gaara…" He said and took another drag. She glared death over at him.

* * *

"Do you got everything?" Matsuri asked. Naruto nodded. "Good, now go get the things you'll need!"

"Yosh! Later!" Naruto yelled running out of the building and towards town. He stopped at the nearest stationary store and picked up a pen and a paper. He went outside and sat down on the ground and began to write. 'Dear Sakura, will you go out with me? Signed Naruto'

"Yata!" He yelled; several people jumped back. He notice and began laughing. "Gomen-ni…" Naruto stood up and raced across town to Temari's apartment.

He opened the door and walked in. "Hello?" No response. He opened the door across the way and set the folded up note on Sakura's pillow. He headed back out into the city and began looking for her.

"Wow, you're strong Sakura-san!" Adji said setting the TV down in her room. "I don't know what I'll do with this thing. Oh well, it'll come in use somewhere!" Adji tossing her hands together grinned. "Thanks for a nice afternoon! See you soon?"

"Of course!" Sakura said happily. "Later!" She said and stepped out into the street. She turned her head up and there jumping down next to her was Naruto. "There you are, it's almost dinner."

"Matsuri told me about this grill across town, want to go there?" Naruto asked.

"Sure." Naruto smiled, 'this is going to be so easy!' "Then afterwards, I'd like to do some shopping."

"Okay, I still need to get some more free stuff, figure we need to take back gifts for everyone."

Sakura nodded and they headed out into the town. "So, what did you need to talk to Gaara about?"

"The forfeit rule, Temari said they didn't have one."

"Yea, she was joking, remember her picking on Shika?" Sakura said. They jumped up onto the ceilings and began making their way. "I met up with Adji and won her a TV. I've become famous at the attraction." She said smiling.

"It figures you would, you're probably the only won to hit in on the shinobi side."

"That's right." Sakura said; Naruto jumped down and Sakura followed. "it's over here." Naruto said and lead her inside the small grill. Once inside Naruto heard his name being shouted.

"Hey Naruto-kun! What's up?" Navi yelled standing up from a booth with Mistaki.

Mistaki quickly pulled her back down as the two waded over. "She's been drinking, heavily at that."

"Mistaki doesn't know what heavy drinking is, I'm just a little buzzed." Naiv prounced clearly. She laughed and laid her head on Mistaki, "squeakers, I'm getting tired… Buy me something to eat."

"Maybe you should get her to her hotel." Sakura said. Navi looked up at Mistaki and nodded in agreement.

"See you two later." He said and helped pick her up.

"Naruto…"

"Yeah…"

"Don't let me turn out like her and Tsunade."

"Got it."


	10. Chapter 10

**Aki here: **OMG the end of the chapter is cuuuuute! that is all.

* * *

"Are you sure we're allowed up here?" Sakura asked as she walked behind Naruto up the side of the back wall behind the Kazekage's building. Both of them had large bags full of smaller bags of free stuff and purchased goods.

"Hai, Matsuri said it was alright as long as we don't destroy it or something like that." He said reaching the top. He walked in a couple feet and sat down looking up at the sky setting his bags aside. "A few more minutes… You don't mind loud noises do you?"

"Eh? Depends, you're not going to start yodeling are you?" She joked and sat down a few feet away. They looked around; suddenly a white flare went off. "What's going on?"

"If I were you," Naruto said laying back and resting his head on his arms, "I'd lay down, better view." He said and stared up at the stars above. She looked at him then noticed a second and third flare. She was nervous but lay back as he did.

The whistle was loud, suddenly an explosion of white hit the air and immediately after a loud explosion sound hit them. "We're right under them!" Sakura said suspired; she turned and looked at Naruto who was too busy smiling to look back.

"Great huh? Think we have three more nights of fireworks!" Suddenly a large red and blue firework exploded. She stared at him and smiled.

* * *

"You're home late…" Temari said putting the scroll she was pursuing down, "and you're absolutely beaming?" She tried to think for a second on the matter. "So you really do like Naruto."

"Who told you?!" Sakura said dropping the bags on the floor.

"Hold your horses, I couldn't care less or more. Not my life." She said and rolled the scroll up. "Shikamaru told me. Don't worry, only I heard it, I asked why you two seemed so dependent on each other, and he told me."

"Everyone knows now, even Naruto…" Sakura said collapsing on the couch. "But until he asks me I can't say yes." She huffed sending a stay hair flying back into place.

"Why don't you go to bed, it's a long day tomorrow." Temari said smiling, Sakura ignored her and nodded. Temari waited as Sakura went to into the room, was quiet for a minute then yelled 'Nani!?' and rushed back out. "He did ask me out! I have to go tell him yes!"

"Tomorrow, it's late!" Temari said quickly. "Both of you need sleep, you'll be used as a stand by healer in the next few rounds. Navi has volunteered you and herself. So you need sleep."

"Uh… alright. Hey, mazdai! You already read this!" Sakura said catching on. Temari laughed to herself muttering 'that took long enough…' through jeers. "Whatever, I'll see you in the morning." Sakura went back into the room and closed the door.

Temari pulled her scroll out and was about to start reading when the door opened and Shikamaru walked in. "I've got the schedule for tomorrow's matches. Read them."

"Next time, knock." She said sternly taking it from him. She smiled, "we get first fight."

"Hai. I'll see you on the field tomorrow." He said and began to walk out. "One last thing Temari, there's no way I'm letting you win." Shikamaru closed the door after himself.

"This is a good line up." Temari set the list down, closed the scroll and headed off to bed.

* * *

Temari and Shikamaru stood, hands on their knees for support, staring at each other while the sand disappeared. She smiled over at him threw the beads of sweat rolling down. "You were serious, huh Shika?"

"Huh… Hai." He said regaining his breath. "Twenty-four minutes… didn't think it would take this long…"

"I'll end it!" Temari said gathering a burst of strength she waved her fan causing sand to rise against Shikamaru, she vaulted into the sun's light and came down fist flaring with a kunai. He saw in time and blocked it, the kunai went faster and faster, attacking and blocking then blocking and attacking. "Forfeit already."

"And I quote 'and you can't forfeit.'" He smiled and raised a hand quickly and caught her shadow. Shikamaru used the blunt end of his kunai for her sharp end. "Forfeit…"

"No." He lowered it and made a slash on his arm, her's was made actually. "When I break this, I'm messing you up." He did another one. They weren't that deep, not even enough to bleed for more then a few minutes.

Temari's breaths became harder to keep up, she passed out. Shikamaru looked in surprise, "I won?" He suddenly released the chakra, he himself passed out from exhaustion.

The crowd was in a confused state of mind. Matsuri grabbed a clip board and closed her eyes circling at random. "Both Temari of the Sand and Shikamaru of the Leaves are disqualified! Taking the winners place, the following contestants will move on to the next round! Tori of Iwa and Matsuri of the Desert. Hey! Cool!" She said realizing it was her. Suddenly Gaara and Kankuro were in the area checking in on Temari. Sakura and Navi both raced in as well, though Navi was still a little drunk and had a bad hangover.

The four of them moved Temari and Shikamaru off the field. Navi leaned over Shikamaru letting out a small glow. Sakura healed the minor injures on Temari's arm then moved to healing her overall. They both pulled away. "They'll be fine."

"Hai, they do need ran to the hospital though." Navi added.

Gaara whistled and several sand nin ran over. They yelled 'hai' and saluted. "Take them to the hospital." The nin hurried to gather them and ran with them away into town. They left the area and Matsuri continued. "Okay! Next match is… Gaara-sempai and Rock Lee!"

"Oh good…" Gaara said mildly enthused. He stepped in the area as Lee jumped in and they stared at each other. Matsuri's whistle blew and Lee disappeared into the air and appeared behind Gaara. Gaara grabbed Lee's foot and tossed him aside. Lee came back, Gaara simply tossed him away everytime. Lee finally stood up slowed and Gaara showed up behind him. "Lee, I've trained to beat you…"

The sand rose and engulfed Lee's legs to his knees and kicked him squarely in the back with a solid kick. Lee landed on the desert sands, his body failing until he balanced and began to race back at Gaara. It became a blur. The audience stood amazed as they watched, no one could see anything. "GO Semapi!" Matsuri cheered.

"You're supposed to be unbiased!" Sakura told her.

"Um… what's unbiased mean?" She asked quietly.

"You don't root of either side." Navi told her.

"Then who do I root for?" Matsuri asked and nearly missed as a green blur was thrown out of the area. The whistle sounded. "Gaara-sempai wins!"

The crowd erupted in a loud noise of cheers and screams. Lee stood up in the desert and looked down as he was only a half a foot out of the area. "Damn… that was close."

Sakura ran out and landed next to Lee, "any injuries?"

"No, just a good fight." Lee said laughing. "That was fun. It's always…"

"Come on, off the field." Sakura said giving him a LARGE push, lee was shoved about fifty feet back into the crowd. She then left the field, Gaara was completely gone from the matches.

* * *

The Kazekage landed softly in his office from the window and picked up the phone, he dialed quickly and a voice came over. "Yes, hello Shizune, is Tsunade there?"

He waited for a second and then heard the Hokage. "I just wanted to check up on the Kage situation, we've had four small cells attack afterward, they were all eliminated." "Alright, keep me informed." He hung up the phone and left again.

* * *

Kankuro smirked. He pulled the scroll out from behind his back and opened it, the Naruto's raced across the field at him, several making Rasengan. The charge foreword, Kankuro summoned his three puppets; Sanshouo, Kuroari, and Karasu. They made there way foreword. Karasu's mouth opened and shot poisoned needles at the clones. Two of the many clones disappeared; the rest used various dodges while one held out the Rasengan destroying the needles.

Kankuro realized what was going to happen and tried to pull Karasu back, but the Naruto was faster. He hit the puppet in the face, it's fake black hair flying everywhere, the puppet badly damaged. Kankuro dropped him quickly and had Kuroari shoot out many kunai and needles. The fleet was down to the real Naruto, and two clones as loud poofing noises went around.

Naruto rushed foreword, the clones pitching everything they could, including the kunai and needles the puppets had just launched back at the puppets. Kankuro pulled them back and blocked Naruto who jumped up and was met by the puppets. "Too slow!"

Naruto belt and copied Gaara by showing up behind him and kicking him square in the back. Kankuro lost control of his puppet and fell to the ground. He landed in front of the abandoned Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouo landed next to him. Kankuro grabbed a finger and Naruto's shoulder jerked. "You're too slow! I attached a Chakra string!"

Naruto pulled out a kunai, it began to glow with chakra and he cut it, he also cut two other lines Kankuro hadn't yet used. Naruto then threw the kunai which crashed threw the arm of Sanshouo, "What's a matter Kankruo?"

"I'll actually have to fight, that's the matter." He said and pulled out a kunai of his own. They rushed foreword and their kunai hit. Kankuro tried to hit Kankuro with his hand, but Kankuro moved back his shoulder and Naruto began to fall foreword. He landed on the hand instead and rolled away. "Kai!" Naruto said quickly.

Kankuro's face lit up as the explosive note Naruto had tried to place was set next to him instead of on. Kankuro was still blown down. Naruto saw his opportunity, and picked up Kankuro and ran to the edge of the area while the puppet master was still in a daze, he tossed him gently out and Naruto threw his hands in the air. "Yat-ta! I did it!"

"That's a good way to end today! Winner Naruto of Konoha!" Matsuri said and the crowd erupted again and began to quickly disperse. Matsuri hopped over to them; Kankuro was in the middle of trying to swear Naruto out in the most friendly manner. "Watch your language, Kankuro-sama!"

"Yeah, I know, I know Matsuri." Kankuro sat up and Sakura and Navi were there, he waved them off. "I'm fine, it's just hurt pride."

"You look so surprised Kankuro." Naruto said happily sitting down next to him. "It's like you expected me not to win…"

"Well… you do goof off a lot." He said staring over. "I didn't think you'd incorporate other peoples move though. That note, that was a real surprise. Did you think of a strategy?"

"Nope, found it in the sand, figured I could use it." He said laughing. He stopped and scratched his head, "strategies are hard to come up with if you don't know who you're opponent is…"

"Ah, hai." Kankuro said standing. "Well, I have to go see Temari, good luck in the next round. Later." Kankuro said disappearing.

"I better go find Gaara-sempai, he promised to take me around the carnival tonight. Sayonara!" Matsuri said and vaulted into the sky landing on the wall then jumping behind it.

"I wish I had her energy…" Sakura said staring. "So, what are we doing tonight?"

"Uh… I… I don't know. What do you want to do?" Naruto asked somewhat puzzled. "I didn't know we were supposed to do anything tonight."

"Would you take me to see the fireworks again, Naruto?" Sakura asked in a bubbly tone.

"Sure!" Naruto said standing up, he slowed his attitude down some, "but what do you want to do for the next two hours then.

"Dinner? Temari told me about a small shop on the edge of town, said they were good and give discounts to shinobi." Sakura said turning around and walking. She heard Naruto walking behind her, he eventually was walking besides her, she decided to tell him already. "Hai."

"Hm?" Naruto asked.

"Hai. You asked me a question remember." She said and stared ahead. Naruto stopped and thought for a second, he knew the question, and he knew the answer, but was having trouble realizing the connection.

'I'm dating Sakura-chan…" "Seriously?" He asked running back up to her excitedly.

"I told you, if you asked me, I would say yes, and I did. Come on, let's go get dinner, Naruto, I'm getting hungry." She said calmly. She was suddenly being squished, Naruto had thrown his arms around her and was smiling larger then he ever had.


	11. Chapter 11

Sakura lay on her back staring at Temari's ceiling. "it was weird… Him hugging me like that. It was so warm…"

"Get used to it, you're a girlfriend now. Congrats, not something I'd be interested it, you have to care for them and all this other shit." Temari said turning the magazine she was reading sideways. She had recovered quickly and was home with nothing more then strained muscles. "Hey," she turned to let Sakura see the picture, "where's the old woman in this, I can find the girl but not the old woman."

Take the edge of the girls shirt and that's the end of the woman's nose…" Sakura said quickly. "Tsunade-sama showed me that a while ago, helps pick things out."

Temari turned the magazine back, "soka…Ah! Arigatou! Mitskay." Temari said smiling. She turned a page and began reading.

"Temari…"

"I don't know anything on the matter! Stop quizzing me, alright? Everything's going to be fine." She said and tore into an article, literally. "I swear half the things they print in this are shit." Sakura laughed some and kept staring at the ceiling.

* * *

"YAT-TA! This is so awesome! Just thinking about I makes me dizzy!" Naruto screamed at the kidnapped audience of Tori who had just gotten out of the hospital.

"Keep thinking about it everyday as that, and you'll die a happy man." Tori said, he couldn't help but catch Naruto's happiness.

Adji walked out and stared at them too yelling in the streets. "It's nearly 1 AM! Will you two shut up. Tori, it's time for bed, Naruto, you should go to be too. You've got matches tomorrow!"

"hai hai." Tori said walking away, "See you tomorrow, Naruto."

"Bye!" Naruto said and began to walk back to his apartment under the starry sky of the desert. As he walked into the hotel he was surprised to see Shikamaru waiting by the doors. "What's up?"

"I have a message from Kakashi for you, he left it a few hours ago and you've made me wait for those hours…"

"Sorry, I was out."

"Anyway, he says to pick him up something for the monument, something he can bury there that would mean a lot." Shikamaru said. "Got any ideas?"

"Actually…" Naruto said looking at him, "I do. Well, I'm off to bed, later!" Naruto said and made his way to his room where he promptly collapsed.

* * *

Temari had woken up early and spent her morning cleaning house and organizing. She was sore from yesterday's fight but still managed to go around ignoring the pain. She stopped and sat down on the couch and looked at the clock. '6:15, it's still too early…The festival doesn't even open until eight.' Temari sighed.

She head a large thump and some mild complaining, a few seconds later Sakura emerged rubbing her side. "You're floor's really hard."

"Fall out of bed?" Sakura nodded and sat down on the couch next to her. "You should probably go back to sleep."

"Nawh, I'm fine. I have to get my clothes ready for today anyway, it the show today, remember?" Sakura asked. She was talking about the ninja show, where they put on a theater act using Jutsus and natural talents. "Plus, I want to wear the combs Naruto bought me. It'll take a half an hour just to do my hair."

"I guess… Never really did my hair, just keep it in these." Temari said grabbing a bunch of hair. "So, why are we dressing up? It's Naruto…"

"I…" Sakura shrugged and laughed as she walked into her room to grab her things.

* * *

"Naruto…" Sakura said sitting on the edge of the bed shaking him, "come on get up it's nearly nine!" She yelled and hit him square on the back. He lunged up grabbing his back and stared out looking at her. "About time, come on, let's go get breakfast."

"Oh, alright… But did you have to hit so hard?" She rubbed his hair and nodded. He sighed and laughed, "alright, I'll meet you outside in a minute."

"Okay." Sakura said and left the room closing the door. She slowly walked out, her hands behind her back, humming. She walked into the lobby and put her shoes on. Just as she walked out Shikamaru was walking in. "Ohiyo, Shikamaru."

"Ohiyo, I take it you woke Naruto up?" He said putting his hands in his pockets. She nodded. "Well someone seems happy this morning…"

"Hai, Naruto and I are dating…" Shikamaru stopped for a second and smiled.

"I'm not sure if you're going to be alright spreading that around Konoha."

* * *

"NANI!?" Tsunade belted into the phone, she nearly broke Temari's ear drum. "Why didn't you stop them!"

"Hey you asked how she was doing, I'm just updating you like you asked, alright?!" Temari yelled back and growled. "If you don't think you can handle something then don't ask about it!"

Tsunade grumbled over the phone and Temari hung it up. "God, is she pissy." Temari began to make her way out to the festival. She went out into the Kazekage's hallway and ran into Gaara and Matsuri. "Ohiyo gesaiimasu."

"Hey Temari-sama. What were you doing?" Matsuri asked quickly.

"Updating Tsunade on Sakura as she asked." She said and moved past them, "Gaara, I wouldn't call her for a couple hours even if it's an emergency." She walked out of sight.

"Wonder why?" Gaara said slowly.

"Sakura-chan must have said yes!" Matsuri said happily. She began to run away, "I have to go congratulate Naruto, see you later, Sempai!" She left view too.

Gaara sighed, "women…" He moved into his office and opened the closet pulling out his official robes and hat. He slowly put them on and walked over to the window, the town was quiet, peaceful, and perfect. Turning to go the phone rang and he picked it up. "Hello?"

He was deafened for a minute and regretted putting in a phone line at his office.

* * *

It was evening when Naruto finished his match against Tori, he had a completely open wound in his shoulder going the entire way through and several kunai stuck in various places. Tori was face down on the ground, not moving. Naruto moved over and lifted him up. Navi was there instantly by his side with Mistaki who was volunteering for the day, with the sole purpose of being close with the woman.

Sakura ran over to Naruto and began to heal the wound. "You're not going to pass out are you?" Naruto shook his head. "That's good. Good job on winning. You'll be going up against Gaara tomorrow." She said slowly. She finished healing the wound and began pulling out the kunai and healing the smaller wounds. "You're lucky Gaara's pretty injured too, I didn't know Matsuri could fight like that."

"He did say she would go well up against Lee, which means he trained her specifically to beat him, which is amazing in itself." Naruto said pulling out the last two kunai. "I'll be fine, fast healing remember? You wouldn't mind getting food would you, I'm starving."

"No, come on, I'll pay today but I expect you to win tomorrow." He laughed and threw his hands behind his head, "I take it you're planning on it."

"You bet, I didn't come here to lose, I came here… for the freebies. Oh, and to win." He joked. "I can't wait to see what the prize is, I hope it's money. I'm going a little broke."

"You shouldn't have bought that specialty Ramen cup. It told you it was too expensive." Sakura nagged. "Sometimes you really need to handle your money better. Oh well, I doubt everyone would let you go without stuff."

"Soka?" Naruto said, "right now, I'm worried though, I have a feeling something's going to hit me really, really hard."

"That's a weird feeling." She said.

* * *

"Aooo…. They're late." Matsuri said standing next to Gaara, "I told them about the show a few days ago. I hope they show up!" She whined sitting on the steps outside the theater. Gaara was holding his right arm, she had badly injured it, but Matsuri herself just was thrown out of the area when she stopped to check on Gaara.

"There's five minutes until it starts. Calm down." He said sternly. As they looked towards the horizon they didn't notice as the two ninja they were looking for landed quietly behind them. They began to stare too until Naruto said, "What are we looking for?"

"You two." Gaara said spinning around. "Let's go in."

"You two were almost late. You two are always almost late… Watches! I'm going to get you watches and set them five minutes ahead." Matsuri said.

"But you just told us they were five minutes ahead, that wouldn't work anymore." Sakura said heading in ahead of the boys with Matsuri. Gaara stuck an arm out and made Naruto wait with him until they were out of sight. He put his arms down and turned around.

"Naruto, I had a very unpleasant phone call from Tsunade." He said quickly, "Temari was ordered to give Tsunade updates on Sakura, she was told this morning that you two were dating and was troubled for several hours."

"Sorry, we kind of weren't planning for her too…"

"Find out? Yes, it would have been best but anyway," he said turning back to check that they weren't coming back. "I don't want anything happening that will ruin the relations between Konoha and Suna, but I'm not going to interfere either. Kankuro will be going everywhere with you all of tomorrow, after the match the festival ends, so there's nothing I can do beyond that, but just behave, Naruto."

"If anything happens? What do you mean?" Gaara began walking away leaving Naruto questioning himself on what Gaara meant, than it hit him and he blushed.

The boy on stage was six or maybe seven, he was small, weakly looking and had blazing blond hair. He was fast though, his hands moved together quickly and suddenly a firey dragon appeared and began soaring above the crowd. "Sugoi!" Matsuri said happily.

Naruto looked at Sakura, both of them had been missed by the child's Genjutsus, Gaara had too but he had already seen the show and knew what Matsuri was talking about. Sakura sighed and began to mess with a single strand of hair on her head that wouldn't stay up. She gave up finally.

Naruto reached a hand up and moved it, sticking it firmly behind her ear. She looked over and smiled, he smiled back. Gaara noticed and made a noise. Naruto put his hand down to his side, Sakura noticed Gaara and snuck her hand over the seat's arm and slipped her hand into Naruto's. He smiled again and squeezed her hand.

The audience 'ooh-ed' and 'awed' as a new Genjutsus was used by two small twin girls on the stage. This time everyone was caught in the Jutsus, and they saw two dolphins swimming threw the air, bouncing every where, dancing together.

"Now that's amazing…" Sakura whispered, Naruto nodded and moved foreword in his seat as the dolphins spread out and jumped horribly close to the crowd. They quickly melted together and formed a large whale; all the while the two girls on stage were singing a small little tune. The whale moved about the theater freely, happily. It even called out and blew from the blow hole.

Sakura snapped out and made a grunting noise; upset she couldn't finish watching the whale. Naruto turned to her and cut off the Jutsus as well. The girls bowed and everyone saw the end of the show. Two acrobats came out and spun and twirled then bowed and the curtain went down.

"They was awesome." Sakura pulled her hand back and stood up to clap with the rest of the audience, "I need to make my Jutsus do that!"

"We're ninja, not performers, you wouldn't want to weaken yourself." Matsuri said suddenly. She had a stern look on her face. "I had to try my hardest to stay in the Jutsus; it wasn't that strong and was too ridiculous to believe."

"Wow, you know a lot about Genjutsus." Naruto said standing and retaking Sakura's hand.

"Hai, I'm not to good so I have to be able to escape them easily." She stood up and finally Gaara got up. "Anything else to do Sempai?"

"No, go home and rest, tomorrow's going to be busy." Matsuri saluted disappeared. Gaara turned to them, "Remember what I said." Gaara made his way out.

"What did he say?" Sakura asked. Naruto shook his head and began to laugh, "about tomorrow huh?"

"Yeah." 'Technically, I'm not lying…' He tried to make it better for himself. "Come on, I'll walk you home." He said and they began to walk out of the theater in the crowd.

"Do you want to go see the fireworks again, it is the last night and they're supposed to be the biggest. Anyway, you don't have to wake up until noon, you're match is in the evening."

"Alright." Naruto said, he turned to the corner, pulling her along to the back part of the Kazekage building and they began up the wall. "So, you really like fireworks, huh?"

"Not really, but we don't get to see them that often, so we minds well see as many as we can." Sakura said; they reached the top and laid down staring up at the stars. "In a few minutes…"

"Hai, Sakura-chan."


	12. Chapter 12

Naruto woke up a little after one in the afternoon. He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. Yawning he stretched his arms out and looked over at the clock. He smiled and opened the door from his apartment to the adjoining one, there lay Kankuro messing with an automatic Sudoku player. "'Bout time you're up."

"All I have to do is be awake for the fight today, anyway, I'm going to go get food." Naruto said and began to walked back. Kankuro stood up and waited for him to come back in. Instead, Naruto dressed in street clothes, put a hat on and went out without going to see Kankuro. "I'm not making it that easy…" He said quietly exiting the hotel and laughing a bit.

Naruto escaped and disappeared into the city. Kankuro waited and eventually opened the door and saw that it was empty. "I have to go find his ass…" He complained to himself. He thought of what Gaara would do to him if he didn't follow Naruto, and shrugged. "Oh well." He closed the door and went back over to the other hotel room and sat back down to his little player.

Naruto moved quickly through the crowds, surprised his old fish sleeping hat wasn't attracting attention. Naruto kept walking until he came upon a small ramen shop, he move the flaps aside and sat down at a seat. An elderly man came up and threw his hands down on the table. "What cha having?"

"Whatever takes the least time to prepare." Naruto said still half asleep.

The man looked at him for a second and moved into the back. Naruto felt a tapping on his back, he turned his head to see Tori holding th flaps open. "You look tired, Naruto."

"Hai, I just woke up." Turning away to yawn he stretched. "Hey Tori, I had some questions for you."

"Sure, what are they?" He asked walking in and taking a seat next to Naruto.

"Sand turns to glass with enough heat, right? Would you have any explosive notes that would turn them into large glass pieces?" Naruto scratched his head. "I need it more hot than… explosive."

"I might. I'd have to check. I do have notes that admit a small fire but it's very hot."

Naruto smiled, "those, I could use those!"

"Alright, I'll go see if I do, where will you be at in a half an hour?" Tori asked standing up.

"Training in my hotel room." Naruto said quickly. "It's at the Red Inn, room 12."

"Wagata. See you there." Tori took off leaving Naruto waiting for his food. 'I get tori's notes, and have Kankuro teach me how to make a chakra line, and I can beat Gaara without turning into Kyuubi.'

"Hoi," the man said coming out of the back. He asked for payment immediately. Naruto pulled out the last bit of his money and forked it over for the food. He ate quickly and went back to the hotel and knocked on Kankuro's door. "What?"

Naruto opened the door and sat down next to Kankuro. "Can you teach me how to make a chakra line?"

"That takes years to learn! You want to learn that?" He said sitting up and staring. "Well… guess it can't hurt. You focus your chakra and send it out at an object. Try to make your chakra as thin as possible."

"Arigatou ni…!" He said quickly. "I'll be on the roof and in my room if you need to keep track of my like Gaara wanted."

Kankuro picked his game back up, "don't care."

Naruto went over to his room and opened the door. He quickly made twenty clones. "Alright, break into groups of three and work on it together! Come back in 5 minutes!"

"Yosh!" Was chanted through the hall very loudly. The Naruto's scattered except the real and two clones. "Alright, let's work." "Okay." "I have an idea! Why don't we each try to make a thick chakra line at first, should be easier?" "That's genius!" "Let's do it!"

They sat in a circle and they each set their hat down in the center and began to focus chakra going out of them an into the hat. "Like wind, it comes out." "That's a good start!" "Focus!"

They began to, chakra began to emanate from their hands, large and bulky and surrounded the palm like a blob. "Again!" "Thinner!" "Outwards!"

The real Naruto's was now a little more out, and a little more thin, the next Naruto's was far thinner, and the last's was far more outwards. They stopped and took a deep breath. "AGAIN!" They chanted and kept trying and trying. After five minutes the clone disappeared from all over the city. Naruto began remembering. He was able to make a chakra line about two inches thick and about four feet long. "SWEET!"

Kankuro kicked the wall. "Why are you so noisy?!"

Naruto opened the door and held out his hand where the string was dangling, "look!"

Kankuro moved his eyes up, saw the string and looked back down. It took a second to register. "How the hell?"

"Amazing, I know!" He laughed and the string disappeared. "Well, I have to go back to training." Naruto said and closed the door and sat back down and created clones. There were six of them. They nodded and took off. Naruto then created six more clone sand they sat down with him. "More of us more training!" "Be careful of letting that damn fox out." "I'm not worried, it uses little chakra." "SHUT UP AND TRAIN!" "Hai, hai."

They all began to work harmoniously aiming for the hat on the ground. Around the city, 36 more Naruto were off training away. There was a knock at the door and seven voice rang out, "hello?"

"Hello." Tori said walking in and looking at them focusing the chakra out. "Chakra strings?"

"Hai." They said.

"I found them; I have five of the very hot and nine of the explosive."

"Thank you Tori!" They said and the real Naruto stopped working. "Look how much we've learned in seven minutes!"

"Oh my, that's an excelled rate." Naruto smiled, "well, I can see you busy, glad I was able to help with your match, Naruto."

"See you," Naruto said holding a hand out, Tori shook it and left. Naruto sat back down setting the notes aside and kept practicing. "Can we make clone notes?" "Should be able to, we can make clone kunai." "That'd be useful." "Gaara's going to lose!" "We'll get that prize!" "It's going to be awesome!" "It'll impress Sakura-chan."

They all began to focus extra hard. After five minutes the Narutos disappeared again and Naruto walked over to Kankuros and showed him. It was a normal, very thin very long chakra string. He used it to rip the game out of Kankuro's hands.

"Already? Sugoi…" Naruto laughed. "Let me guess, you're going to use that against Gaara?"

Naruto shrugged, "not against him." Naruto giggled, "well, I'm going to see Sakura-chan, do you have to come with now."

"Will you behave?"

"Hai."

"No, now give me my game back!" Kankuro said angrily. Naruto swung it back over on the string and let the chakra go. "Later!"

"Yup, see you at the match." Naruto said and closed the door between the rooms. He picked up his hat and the notes and left the hotel wandering around looking for Sakura, he heard her before he saw her. "It doesn't make you look fat! You're only a hundred and a couple pounds! If anything it shows how skinny you are!"

"No it doesn't!" Rang out Adji's voice. He made his way over to a clothing shop where he saw Sakura standing outside a changing booth. "I look fat!"

"LAIR!" Sakura yelled making a fist.

"Don't punch her." Naruto said calmly behind her. She turned around, angry at him now. "Hey don't take this out on me! She's doing it!"

"Wait… I don't look fat!" Adji said coming out of the booth. Slowly Sakura calmed down, once she was fine she took a deep breath, "told you!" Adji was trying on a simple white dress that clung to the skin.

"well, I'm buying it, You go hang out with your… boy…friend…" She said slowly and giggled. Adji removed herself back to the dressing room.

"Sorry, I snap easily." Sakura said quickly.

"I know. So, what's up?" Naruto asked. He put a hand down on his side and attached a string of Chakra to Sakura's hand. Slowly he dragged her arm out.

"Hey what's with my…?" Naruto suddenly let go and held up a hand creating a chakra line off each finger. "Chakra strings? When did you learn that?"

"From Kankuro, about twenty minutes ago. Cool huh?" Naruto said. "I use clones to learn faster and got it down."

"Why'd you need to know that?"

* * *

Naruto looked across at Gaara, Gaara was breathing heavily, holding the arm. Naruto had taken special focus to use it against Gaara. Naruto however had been stabbed in the back with a kunai. Naruto pulled the kunai out as quickly as one would rip a bandaid and threw it into the ground.

'Now…' He said and created eleven clones circling Gaara. Gaara's other hand moved quickly but the Naruto pulled out two notes each and stuck them to the ground yelling "Ki!"

Gaara moved quickly out to be hit with a chakra string he didn't see. Several clones rushed in and tried to attack Gaara. The real Naruto just stood their waiting. Putting ont eh strings. The clones were attaching strings with one hand and fighting with the other. Gaara noticed something was wrong and looked down to see a string. "What?" He said quietly and cut them all except four on his back from Naruto. Suddenly the clones yelled "Ki" again. They exploded themselves next to Gaara.

Naruto used the strings to pull Gaara out and create several more clones. He was going to do the same thing as before, except Gaara was still conscious. One by one the clones fought and lost. Naruto created another lcone and began to run with Ragengan at Gaara he quickly pulled a kunai and threw it. The clone threw and kunai offsetting it before he was covered in sand.

Gaara leapt up and Naruto let loose and jumped behind him and hit Gaara's bad arm with the Rasengan. Gaara moved away quickly and landed a ways away, staring at Naruto. 'Damn it, he's found a good weakness.' Suddenly the sand started swirling below, he moved his hands and crushed the clones down their together and suddenly heard wind from above. He looked up to see another Rasegan, the sand moved to block as the real Naruto hit Gaara square in the bottom of the chin while he was looking up. He was sent flying and a clone jumped up and kicked him hard outside the area.

The crowd went silent. Matsuri slowly raised the whistle as Naruto rushed over to Gaara and offered a hand up. Gaara took it and they smiled and laughed. "I beat you pretty good this time."

"Chakra strings, chakra as a weapon, notes and clones, you must be exhausted." Gaara said happily. "I couldn't have lost to a better ninja."

"Future hokage…" Naruto said happily. Sakura rushed over and began to heal Gaara. "Sakura, I won."

"I noticed, and so did most of Sunagakure." She said, Naruto looked up and saw that the crowd was quiet, their Kazekage had lost. "Oh well, they can't get everything all the time. It's like they expected you to be perfect, Gaara."

"I know."

"Sempai… was sugoi, sugoi, SUGOI! Good job Sempai!" Matsuri said landing on his shoulders bending down slightly to look at him. "Valiant way to loose!"

"Eh... thanks Matsuri." Gaara said confused. Sakura stopped healing him and went to Naruto's back and began healing the small wound. When she was finished she went his his side and locked his hand in hers. "I take it you two are leaving?"

"We have to get home and all." Sakura said quickly.

"Wait, what's my prize?" Naruto asked excitedly.

Matsuri quickly rushed over and came back with a small dog that had a ribbon around it. "It's the cutest damn dog ever, isn't he?" She said rubbing her nose with the small puppy's.

"Serisouly?"

Gaara shook his head. "It's a prize, Matsuri's dog had a litter and she decided to give one to the winner. She already gave me two."

"I named them Suna and Kaze." She handed the dog over to Naruto. Gaara pulled out a small piece of paper. "Oh, I'll get the tropy!"

She bounced away as Sakura took the paper. She showed it to Naruto, "Nani, that much money?"

"Hai, the festival makes a lot of money, its good income, Konoha should start one. Of course, now I have to work to beat you." Gaara said walking away. Matsuri came back and handed a small gold cup to Sakura, kissed the puppy and left.

"Maybe Kiba needs a new dog…" Naruto said looking at it.


	13. Chapter 13

"Why do I have to carry the dog?" Shikamaru said landing on a tree branch only to take off again.

"Sakura and mine's hands are full." Naruto said for the thousandth time. Shikamaru had been complaining for the past two days about carrying the dog, when in all it was the lightest. Naruto had packed ALL the gifts and freebies plus his clothing on his back. Sakura had the television and her original backpack which made her had to run on the ground by herself. She was ahead of them by four minutes and well out of sight.

"It's just this things tried to pee on me four times." He said upset. "At least the villages only a couple minutes away and I can take this to Kiba."

"Hai, I think he'll make an excellent ninja dog." Naruto said smiling over at the tiny puppy, who was sleeping quietly, his fur lifting off his rib cage and back down. "Anyway, he's only a few days old."

"So that's why Sakura was feeding him with a bottle, I though she was just pampering him." Shikamaru said, they saw Sakura on the open ground near the gate with Tsunade there, glaring at her muttering something. Shikamaru jumped down. "Hello Hokage-sama."

Tsunade stopped, "what's with the dog?"

"It was a side prize." Naruto replied jumping down. He pulled his trophy out, "I won the fighting competition. Probably would have without Gaara's arm being hurt, but still…" Naruto had on his smile and Tsunade responded as usual.

"Very good work Naruto, I except that from you. You and Sakura, my office in an hour, got it?" She said and began to walk away. Shikamaru turned to them, "I'll see you too later… if you're still alive." He jumped away with the puppy.

"I don't think it will be that bad, even though Tsunade-sama did ask me what the Hell I was doing." Sakura said smiling.

"Come on, let's get this stuff off my back, it's getting heavy." Naruto said and they began their way into town.

Shikamaru saw Kiba, Shino and Hinata walking with Kurenai down the side street near Kiba's house. He jumped down in front of them. "Kiba, Naruto was wondering if you could use this." He said holding out the dog.

"We could always use more dogs!" He said happily. "But where Naruto get a dog from?"

"Matsuri, Gaara's student. Her dog had a litter and she gave on to him." Shikamaru said handing him over. "He's only about five days old, we've been trying to keep him warm and all."

"I'll get him over right away!" Kiba said and whistled with his free arm. Akahamaru came up from behind them and Kiba got on him. "Home, Akahamaru." He said and they left. Shikamaru started to walk away.

Shino spoke up, moving his glasses up with his fingers. "How did the festival go?"

"I don't know, I slept though most of it. You'll have to ask Naruto or Sakura." Shikamaru said turning around. He stopped, "Kurenai, how's the…"

"Fine, fine, you don't need to keep checking up. It's not like anything's going to happen." Kurenai said. Shikamaru went over and knocked on the wood fence and disappeared.

* * *

"A TV?" Mrs. Haruno said excitedly. "We get to put that in the living room, riiiiiiiight?" Her mother assumed happily.

"Of course, it wouldn't fit in my room if I tried." Sakura said setting it down leaning on the couch. Naruto walked in with all the bags.

"Ah! Naruto-kun, don't tell me she's been using you as a pack mule." Mrs. Haruno said casting glances at Sakura who rolled her eyes.

"Nope, I decided to take them, it was that or the TV." He said setting the bags down. Sakura quickly stood up and began going through the bags picking out her things and separating them. Naruto quickly picked up what was his. "I'll see you at Tsunade's office."

"Bye." Sakura said standing up from a bag. Naruto nodded and exited.

* * *

The door to Naruto's apartment opened and all his bags fell in onto the floor where the old ramen cups and dirty laundry was. He took a deep breath and began looking through the bags for his linen scented candles Sakura made his but. He pulled them out of the boxes and placed them in his closed window seal, letting the sun heat them. Naruto moved the rest of the bags on his bed and began picking up all the garbage in the empty candle bag.

Tying it shut he headed outside and tossed it in the garbage bin behind his apartment building. He went back up to find Sai knocking at his door. "Sai!" Naruto said happily.

"Naruto-kun. I just came by to see how the trip was. My book said," Sai began pulling out his book. He held it up in front of him and opened to a tab, "'As a friendly gesture, a true friend will stop by after noting seeing a friend for a long time such as a trip or a long break.'"

"Sai, you need to burn that book." Naruto said staring at him. He thought for a minute, "wait a minute, I have the book that will change your life! Look how Kaki-Sensai is!"

"Kaki-Sensai reads?" Sai asked follow Naruto into his apartment. Naruto began shifting through his chest of Jiraiya's old things and tossed the first book of Make-Out paradise at him. "Make-Out Paradise?"

"Kakashi loves those books, I never got a knack for them, boring to me, but hey, you like boring stuff." Naruto smiled and checked his watch, he had a half an hour until he had to be at Tsunade's. "Hey Sai, can we talk later? I have to clean and organize."

"Are you feeling alright?" Sai asked quickly.

"Funny." Naruto said blandly. He shoved Sai out of the door. "See you later." He slammed it closed and threw himself back on the door. He heard Sai walk away and began to put all his clothes in a basket that was hidden under a lot of clothes. He shoed them in and grabbed a bag full of stuff and dumped smaller bags and such on the bed. He put the rest of his dirty laundry in there. He'd do that later.

* * *

"It's Sakura!" Ino said walking in with Tenten. "We were having a girls day and heard that you were back and was wondering… Is that a new TV?" She said staring at the wall. "It's huge!"

"Hai, I won it at the festival, took all my strength though. Oh, I brought back things for everybody!" Sakura said excitedly. She rushed back to a small bag and brought it over infront of them. "Ino, I know how much you care about you're hair."

Sakura pulled out a small red bag containing hair minerals and some trinkets. Ino took it and thanked her. "Then Tenten, yours is a bit more practical." Sakura held out two sets of long scrolls. "I figured this was you."

"Hai, I need more. Arigatou!" She said. Tenten stuck them with her large scroll, "so are you joining us? We're just going around shopping."

"I can't, I actually better be heading to Tsunade's to be yelled at. See you later?" She asked, the girls nodded and they exited, Sakura hoping away over the rooftops.

* * *

"You knock." Naruto whispered to Sakura. She shook her head. "No, you do it, Naruto."

"Fine." He said quietly and knocked twice. Tsunade yelled something inaudible and they opened the door. There stood Shizune tossing papers at the Hokage. She looked up and was about to talk when Tsunade began growling. "Shizune out."

"Um…" She waved and smiled to them on her way out. Shizune spun and closed the doors.

"Naruto, what exactly did I tell you that you disobeyed?"

"I believe it was not to touch Sakura-chan or you'll kill me." Naruto muttered nervously.

"Sempai!" Sakura shouted angrily. "How dare you intrude on my personal life! That was a stupid thing to order! You're not my mother!"

"Sakura…" Tsunade said surprised. "Can't you see that relationships can ruin you, look at Yugao! She's been crushed for years."

"Yugao still loves him that's why! You're just upset because you messed up with Jiraiya!" Sakura said. Tsunade sat down and slammed her arm on the desk. "That's why, you don't want me to end up like you."

"Granny, I'm to dying anytime soon unlike your last two boyfriends." Naruto said quickly. Tsunade began to get angry and just sat there. "Well?"

"No, you're not going to end up like them, but you're arrogant and run head into things. Naruto, you'll end up killing Sakura." Tsunade said seriously. Both shinobi stopped for a second before bursting out laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You think… you think I'd ever let her die because of me?"

"I can heal myself before it gets to that, remember? Come on Sempai, you're being ridiculous!" They kept laughing and then turned to go. "Bye Sempai, see you tomorrow for training."

"Later Granny!" Naruto yelled and opened the door, they laughter disappeared when the doors closed leaving Tsunade pissed off. "Watch Naruto, you will end up killing her, you're too reckless."

* * *

"Hm?" Naruto asked as they made their way out to the steps. He held out his hand near Sakura, She looked over and took it. "Sakura, you know I'll never let you…"

"I know Naruto." She said smiling and tightening her grip on his hand. "Oh, I told my mom and she gave me strict instructions to kidnap you for dinner."

"you know, kidnapping's a federal offense…. I think I'll let it slide though." He joked. She elbowed him. "What?"

"That was a lame joke." She said seriously as they hit the bottom. "Roof tops?" She asked.

"Sure." He said, they jumped in unison not noticing the figure that was watching.

* * *

"Hi Sempai!" Navi said bursting the office. Behind her Mistaki walked in smiling, "Hi Sempai!"

"You two, at the same time. The world really is ending." Tsunade muttered. "Don't tell me you two…" Navi and Mistaki smiled as they joined hands. "Oh boy, the world's ending. I have to go secure my finances."

"Ha-ha, funny Sempai." Mistaki told her. "The world's doing fine, and you're finances are probably as horrible as ever." Tsunade stopped and thought for a minute, "I think she's planning on hurting us."

"Hai, let's go quickly." Navi said and they rushed away. Tsunade was still trapped in thought and remained that way for several more minutes before a thin stream of tears began coming down. "I wish the world was ending."

* * *

"MOM!" Sakura said somewhat annoyed by the woman, Mrs. Haruno had brought out all of Sakura's pictures including the ones where she was covered in frosting or mud. "CAN'T WE JUST EAT?"

"Sakura, lighten up. Think about it, I never had these things taken, I never had anybody to take them."

"You're depressing." Mrs. Haruno said quickly. She shut the folder and put it away. "Come on, let's eat."

They moved into the small dinning room with only the table and a set of four chairs. Taking their seats, Mrs. Haruno disappeared. Naruto turned towards Sakura, "am I really depressing?"

"Sometimes, but you always make it better." She said quickly. Mrs. Haruno brought out a large bowl with a ladle. She left again and came back out with spoons and bowls. "What type of soup?"

"Miso of course. My favorite." Mrs. Haruno smiled.

"Your mom's nice, but weird." Naruto said as he stood on the doorstep facing her and the house.

"Yeah, you get use to her. I'll see you tomorrow." Sakura said.

"Yep, bye Sakura-chan." Naruto said.

"Bye." She stepped out and they hugged quickly. "Don't forget to clean your room."

"Yea, yea, yea…" He said and began down the street until he jumped up in the air disappearing. Sakura waited for a minute watching with fond eyes the empty street until she heard something.

Sakura turned her head, "Oh, Hinata! Hello."

"Um, hi Sakura. So, you and… Naruto… are…" She couldn't finish the sentence. Sakura stepped out and put a hand on Hinata's shoulder.

"Are you going to be alright, Hinata?" Hinata shook her head. Sakura walked over and moved her inside. "Come on, I have something for you."

"What?" Hinata whispered whipping away a tear. Sakura picked up a small green box and handed it to her. She opened it to find a small purple flowered comb. "Thank you."

"Hai. Just try not to think on it, Hinata. I'm sorry but… I'm not. You would know the feeling we're our roles reversed." Sakura said slowly.

"It's alright, Sakura-san." Hinata said strongly, "because you make Naruto happy."


	14. Chapter 14

Sakura was stumbling a bit as Naruto lead her down the hallway to his apartment, she was blindfolded and waiting for him to show her what he had done to his room

Sakura was stumbling a bit as Naruto lead her down the hallway to his apartment, she was blindfolded and waiting for him to show her what he had done to his room.Naruto opened the door, stodd her in the doorway and took off the blindfold. She looked in, "Sai?"

"What?" Naruto asked looking past her. Sai was sitting on his bed reading the second book of Make-Out Paradise. "You just can't break into my apartment whenever you feel like!" Naruto yelled moving past Sakura.

"Sorry, but I need the second book." Sai said. "I must say, these people act a lot differently then we do. What am I supposed to be learning from this?"

"Noth-ing! It's for entertainment!" Naruto pointed his finger off the bed. "Off my bed!"

Sai got up and stood their, a puzzled expression on his face. "Did I do something wrong."

"Hai, now, next time just tell me you need the next book." Naruto said shoving him out the door. "Later Sai."

"Hai, later." Sai said still confused and took off.

Sakura began laughing at Naruto's dismay. "You shouldn't get so angry at him, he doesn't know any better."

"So…" Naruto said pointing to the floor.

"Good job on cleaning, you even have everything picked up!" She said happily. "having a clean room nice isn't it?" Naruto shrugged. Sakura slide on and pulled him in, she raised herself and kissed him quickly. Naruto stood their stunned. "Well, I have to get back home, just keep your room clean, alright, Naruto."

"Okay…" She left and the door closed, Naruto quickly touched his lips and remembered quickly. "ALRIGHT!" He screamed happily throwing his arms in the air.

* * *

**Aki here**, thanks for reading and suffering through Microsoft Word's ever failing grammar and spell check. I'm trying to learn Japanese, and I promise I won't use anything but Hai and Arigatou in the following stories, only words I'm sure off. :)

Well, this is just the short ending quick write. Please check back on September 12, when A Tale for Navi comes out. Thanks Again, Aki.


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